ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish woman running on Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's election list in Kirkuk says that Kurds have been complicit in the province's dysfunction.
"Kirkuk is not merely suffering from the aftermath of October 16. This is the infrastructure which was laid 15 years ago," Faiyza Majeed told Rudaw in an interview.
She also strongly criticized Kurds in the city for not being able to work together with other groups.
"Therefore, Kurds are the main culprits in this matter," she claimed.
Oil-rich Kirkuk is a diverse city home to Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and other components.
She said she has her own plans to serve the people of Kirkuk in order to counter "the bad" which Kurdish parties imparted on the city.
Some people did not like the idea of running on an Arab list.
"She must have joined the Kurdish lists," Sitar Miheden, a Kurdish main in Kirkuk, told Rudaw.
Others said she had to fight in Baghdad for Kurds.
"It does not matter to me on which list she is fielding candidacy. What really matters to me, is that the rights of my nation are not violated," said Sarmand Fakhraddin, another Kurdish person in Kirkuk.
Dana Cemal claimed there were no issues between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen before October 16.
"These political parties drove wedges between Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs," Cemal said.
Komal, Gorran, and Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) have formed the Homeland (Nishtiman) alliance in the disputed territories, while the PUK and Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) are running separate campaigns. The Kurdistan Islamic Movement (KIM) has joined the KDP in the boycott.
Iraq has a 25 percent female gender quota for parliament with its 329 seats.
Last October, Iraqi forces supported by Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries took control of Kirkuk, which had previously been under Peshmerga control. Kirkuk is a disputed or Kurdistani area that is claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad.
The Kurdish party with the most seats in the Iraqi parliament, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is not running candidates in what it has called an "occupied" city.
Kirkukis will elect 13 candidates including the minority quota to fill seats in Baghdad on May 12.
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