ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Nearly 3 million Kurds in the autonomous Kurdistan Region head to the polls today to elect members of provincial councils and deputies for the Iraqi parliament.
“We are going to the polls today in a democratic process,” said Nechirvan Barzani, the Kurdish prime minister, after casting his ballot in the capital, Erbil.
“These elections are very crucial for Iraq and for the Kurdistan Region,” said Barzani. “I hope this process goes through calmly.”
Compared to the rest of Iraq, where the fear of violence and terrorist attacks looms large, the Kurdistan Region enjoys better security. However, security has been tight for weeks now.
Alongside elections for the Iraqi parliament, the autonomous Kurds are also voting for local councils for the first time in about a decade.
The Kurdish prime minister encouraged people to go to the polls and “practice their democratic right.”
“This is a great victory for democracy in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the Change Movement (Gorran), Nawshirwan Mustafa, urged people to “participate in the elections with enthusiasm,” as he cast his vote in Sulaimani.
Mustafa’s party fared well in the September polls for the Kurdish parliament and how is eying the post of Sulaimani governor and seats in the Iraqi parliament.
In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki cast his ballot at a polling station at al-Rashid Hotel.
He, too, encouraged Iraqis to go to the ballot boxes. and vote for competent candidates. “The structure of the next government relies on people’s participation in today’s elections,” he said.
Maliki is hoping for a third term in office, though local and some international observers find it unlikely in the face of growing dissent against the Shiite premier.
Maliki’s Kurdish and Sunni rivals accuse him of promoting a sectarian agenda and “authoritarianism.”
However, speaking to the media shortly after voting, Maliki tried to brush aside such accusations. “Our condition for any coalition is the integrity (of Iraq) and non-sectarianism,” he declared.
Iraq’s Sunni regions are particularly determined to see the prime minister out of office. Some tribes in Anbar province have even taken up arms against Iraqi troops in the past several months.
Even on election day, Maliki was mindful of the tense situation in the Anbar cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, where Iraqi troops have been fighting insurgent groups for more than a year. He vowed to bring an end to the fighting there, saying, “We do not hesitate to use force against al-Qaeda and the extremists.”
Today’s elections are as crucial for Maliki as they are for the Kurds and the Sunnis.
The prime minister and his Dawa party will need more than 50 percent of the votes in order to form a government.
In the 2010, elections he secured his post thanks to the Kurds, who lent him their support -- a move they soon regretted and which was described by many as a political blunder.
Kurdish leaders say that Maliki reneged from an agreement he signed in Erbil in 2010, pledging to pass an important oil and gas law stuck in the Iraqi parliament, and work to implement Article 140 of the constitution, which aims to decide the fate of vast swathes of disputed territories.
In the lead-up to today’s vote, premier Barzani said that these elections will change the political map of Iraq. This was echoed by Muhammad Faraj, head of the Islamic Union (Yekgirtu), who said after voting: “I ask everyone to come and vote. Even those who have decided not to vote, I tell them to change their minds. This is where change is going to happen.”
A major difference between this and previous elections is special electoral cards provided by the Electoral Commission for eligible voters, aimed at preventing fraud and speeding up the voting process.
But Rudaw correspondents have reported that card-reading machines have malfunctioned at a number of polling stations across the region.
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