ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — In an interview aired on Sunday, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) politburo chief told Rudaw that the party solves internal issues through one lead figure, Masoud Barzani, speaking on holding a party congress ahead of Iraq's elections.
“Unlike other parties, we have a strong marja (leader). All our issues are solved through that marja, who is Masoud Barzani,” Fazil Mirani told Rudaw on Thursday, adding there were currently no issues within the party.
The term marja is commonly used for the highest authority figures.
“We accept whatever our marja says and without that we wouldn’t be the KDP,” Mirani said. “We would be another party and we want to remain the KDP, the final decision is whatever Masoud Barzani says.”
Mirani stated holding a party congress was not suitable at the current time for a number of reasons, including the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing war between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkey.
“The coronavirus is still an ongoing issue and on the other side, there’s the fight between the PKK and Turkey that’s knocked on our doors,” Mirani noted. “If a congress is held, many of our military officials will have to return for the meeting and we cannot leave our bases – I personally do not think the circumstances are suitable to hold a congress this year.”
The KDP has not held a party congress since 2010. Before the coronavirus outbreak, party officials said a congress would be held by the end of 2020 but the congress was postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic.
“As per the party’s bylaws, we need an absolute majority of party members, a two thirds super-majority, or for the head of the party to ask for a congress to be held,” he said. “None of that has happened.”
“There is stability among our ranks, you hardly see anyone from our party move to another party and no politburo member has ever resigned because of us not holding a congress,” Mirani said.
Elections
Mirani said the division of provinces into smaller constituencies for the upcoming parliamentary elections, a consequence of the electoral reforms signed into law November, has prevented them from forming a united Kurdish list.
“We wanted all Iraq as one constituency or as only one constituency per province but in the end, the Sunnis and Shiites passed the law with a majority vote – and that is why we could not go as one list,” Mirani said.
The politburo chief said the parties should see how many representatives they could get in Baghdad and each designate an amount of candidates to enter the elections as one list, responding to a question on why a coalition had not been formed between Kurdish parties.
“We could cooperate in terms of constituencies but unfortunately Kurds cooperate with others, not among themselves,” Mirani added.
In November, President Barham Salih signed election reforms into law. According to the new law, each province is divided into multiple constituencies.
Word of Kurdish parties forming an alliance has been around, but with a little over four months to the elections, only the PUK and Gorran (Change) have declared an official alliance.
The KDP will field 55 candidates in eleven provinces. The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) will not contest the election, but are supporting six independent candidates. The recently rebranded Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal) is putting forward five candidates. New Generation will also participate in the vote as a stand-alone party.
Iraq will hold elections on October 10, ahead of schedule. Early elections were one of the demands of protesters who took to the streets in October 2019 across central and southern Iraq.
Post-referendum
“I always say our problem is not with individuals – our problem is with the mindset that sees Kurds as servants,” the politburo chief said. “As long as this mindset persists in Baghdad, we will have no allies. However, we still work with them because we have no other choice, since you don’t have (your own) state and live in Iraq, you have to work with them.”
Following the 2017 independence referendum led by then President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani, many Iraqi political parties’ relationship with the Kurdistan Region and the KDP worsened, to the point some accused the referendum of being an attempt to split up Iraq. Some claimed the KDP was going to weaken following the “unsuccessful” referendum, but Mirani said he disagrees.
“Following the referendum, our aim was to keep our 38 seats, as many people were against us just like now but our followers surprised us and told us we had made no mistake,” Mirani stated, adding that while there were some against the referendum, the party’s seats increased to 45.
“We set up something to ensure Kurds will not need another referendum, the people have made their decision,” Mirani said.
Additional reporting by Sangar Abdulrahman
