By Rekar Aziz and Alexander Whitcomb
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – In the Kurdistan Region, the campaign posters for this month’s legislative elections have become an issue in their own right: Kurds increasingly want the ubiquitous posters to be made in the Kurdistan Region.
With election leaflets left on cars, flagged on telephone lines and a honking parade of party-colored motorcades on the streets, there is big money in the month-long campaign preceding the April 30 polls.
Many want local businesses to cash in on this lucrative market.
“The economy is still developing,” says Idris Remezan, business professor at the University of Salahaddin.
“There’s no faster way for a candidate to lose the trust of people than funding foreign companies with their advertisement campaign. During election campaigns, the candidate needs to attract people with projects he proposes to develop the region, so if a candidate doesn’t believe in the region’s local companies, how can he believe there will be voters to vote for him?”
Posters, flags and leaflets are frequently brought in from Turkey, Lebanon and as far away as China. While trade with Turkey has been a major boon to the Kurdish economy, some think the Kurdish political process should be 100 percent “Made in Kurdistan.”
Adil Zewaiye of Duhok realizes that “some of our candidates send their election advertisement design to be printed in Turkey. I have no issues if the quality is lower in Kurdistan. But if everything you print in here is the same as the Turkish product, why would you print there?”
Local printing quality is rising to international standards, after the Ministry of Industry banned the use of old presses. But the reality is that local costs are not always competitive.
Farid Shewazoori, CEO of Erbil-based Roxana Printing Company, admits “the price of printing is lower in China than in the Kurdistan region.” However, Kurdish companies have an advantage with last-minute orders, as “political parties must send orders to China about a month in advance, and 15 days to Turkey. There’s no guarantee for receiving your product from abroad in time.”
Yet, even if posters are printed at home, it is often foreigners doing the work. Shewazoori claims Kurdistan is “lacking in local workers. Most of the employees are foreigners.”
It is not just where the posters are printed that is causing controversy; it is also who is paying for them. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) is trying to enforce stricter campaign finance and transparency rules.
Hinderen Muhammad Salih, director of the IHEC office in Erbil, is highly skeptical about the implementation of campaign laws.
“There’s a law that calls for all parties to open a bank account, put the election campaign expenses in the account, and then reveal their election campaign expenses after the elections are done,” he says. “Since none of the political parties seem to be fulfilling the law, the consequences will be disqualifying the parties from the elections. But I don’t see the law to be strong enough to make the political parties follow.”
Of the three largest political parties, only the Change Movement (Gorran) Party voluntarily discussed expenses with Rudaw.
Rebeen Omer, a media representative for Gorran, claims his party has “spent 10 million Iraqi Dinar ($8,500) for election campaigns in Erbil, and we will try to stop it from reaching 25 million ($21,500).”
Omer seeks to cap spending because of a new campaign finance law that requires parties to only spend 250 dinar per voter in the country, multiplied by the number of party candidates.
Yet he also confesses that many costs are borne by private activists, who often commission posters and spend as much as the candidates themselves. Substantial election costs would be off the books even if parties had opened election accounts.
Important (non-financial) contributors to the parties are volunteers. They play an essential part in the campaign because they hang the posters and distribute materials in all but the most extreme places, for which parties hire cranes.
Fazil Haji Hussein, spokesman for the Erbil Traffic Directorate, states that the parties have been given clear instructions about where to place posters.
“The Committee of Security in Erbil province met with representatives from all Kurdish political parties, announcing that they should not post their election posters and flags on traffic signs, or in certain public places. Otherwise, they will be fined.”
Hussein acknowledges that police are usually lenient with campaigners, simply ordering them to remove the offending posters. Yet, even officially sanctioned posters have caused problems.
“We detected one car accident which was caused by an attractive female candidate’s poster on the street. Apparently, the driver lost control of the car when distracted by the poster.”
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