ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The two-year term of Change Movement (Gorran)’s Executive Council, the party’s highest authority, is due to come to an end on July 25, with new members to be elected. However, internal party stasis and a lack of accountability of senior party members look set to further delay the National Conference in which the council is elected.
The current Executive Council was elected on July 25, 2017, following the death of the founder of the party Nawshirwan Mustafa. Omer Sayid Ali was then elected as the General Coordinator of the movement.
Ali looks set to hold onto his role, with an anonymous Gorran National Council source telling Rudaw that the influential sons of the late party founder Chya and Nima Mustafa want him to remain in his currently “uncontested” position.
According to the party’s internal bylines, internal elections are to be held every two years for all Gorran party institutions, including the Executive Council.
Sulaimani-based Gorran formed as a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) breakaway in 2009. Running on a platform of political transparency and anti-corruption, it achieved remarkable success in the 2013 Kurdistan parliamentary elections, coming second only to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Running a notably quieter campaign in the 2018 elections, it lost half of its Kurdistan parliamentary seats and its position as the second-largest party.
The party has been blighted with internal conflict, with departing members making accusations of nepotism and a monopolization of power by party leaders. Gorran’s movement from the opposition to participation in the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was also a contentious issue for party members.
It is hoped that the election of a new Executive Council could provide the party with a fresh start, but a Gorran National Council member told Rudaw that a three month extension for the current Executive Council is highly likely.
The movement has used a host of reasons, including KRG cabinet formation deliberations and the reported ill health of the National Council secretary, to explain the delay in the National Council’s meeting.
Inertia has stoked impatience in some party members.
A Gorran official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the subject, calls the current inaction a “violation of the internal constitution” of the movement, claiming that there are some heads of party offices who have held their positions since the party’s conception, while some party sections lack supervisory figures to hold party members accountable because vacant leadership roles have been left unfilled.
Othman Haji Mahmoud, a prominent Gorran member, left the party due to internal disagreements, while Jalal Jawhar, another Executive Council member is slated to become an assistant to the KRG PM for Reform Affairs, leaving two Executive Council seats vacant. According to information Rudaw has obtained from Gorran sources, Mustafa’s sons hope Adnan Othman and Hoshyar Omer Ali will replace them.
Shorsh Haji, a prominent member of Gorran’s Executive Council, admits that the majority of Kurdistan Region party leaders, reluctant to give up their power, steer clear party congresses and conferences.
“Gorran’s conference needs to be held and its party infrastructure reviewed as soon as possible,” Haji said, fearing that the party’s leadership may replicate those in establishment Kurdish parties.
He added that his party’s National Conference, the equivalent of a party congress, had initially been set back in January 2019, with internal elections as part of the program. He also claims that he had insistently urged for the approval of a new party structure by the end of this month.
Despite his protestations and those of other like-minded party members, Haji appears to have resigned himself to delays.
“The National Council will decide what is to be done. The Council will decide whether to extend the Executive Council’s term. There is a strong possibility of a two to three month extension,” he added.
Translated by Mohammed Rwanduzy
