The election by the provincial council to fill the post was due to take place on Tuesday, but has been delayed pending decision to be made by an Iraqi Federal Court on the fate of the sacked governor and his deputies.
The previous governor, Nawfal Hamadi, was fired by the Iraqi parliament along with his two deputies, after some officials and Mosul residents accused the governing team of corruption and negligence in the aftermath of the ferry disaster.
Around 150 people were killed on March 21 when a tourism ferry capsized on the Tigris River amid rushing high waters, a lack of life jackets, and overcapacity. It was the most deadly tragedy to strike the war-ravaged city of Mosul since it was retaken from the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2017.
Hamadi had a two-week window in which to file an appeal against his dismissal. But with no appeal received, nominations for his replacement were opened on April 15. The ousted governor is rumored to have fled to Erbil. The director-general of Erbil Police said no arrest warrant for Hamadi has been received.
Ghazwan Dawudi, a member of Nineveh provincial council’s legal committee, told Kirkuk Now that once the court approves the sacking, a new governor will be elected in 15 days.
Abdulrahman Luisi, a member of the Nineveh Provincial Council, told Rudaw the strongest candidate is Ubaid Jaheshi from the Nahza Bloc, the largest Arab bloc in the Sunni stronghold of Nineveh. He said 21 signatures from the 39-member Provincial Council have been collected in support of Jaheshi's candidacy.
Despite the closing of the candidacy window and the collation of signatures, "there is still no timeframe set for the election of a new governor," Luisi said, citing a pending decision from the Iraqi Federal Court on the fate of the sacked governor and his team.
However, council member Luisi believes the Iraqi Investment Board was responsible for the implementation of safety measures at the resort and should be held accountable for the ferry accident - not the governor and his deputies.
Why the delay?
The provincial council closed the filing window for candidates on April 25.
Saido Chato, the president of the Nineveh Provincial Council and member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said his party has not yet thrown their public support behind any candidate.
"We are still waiting for the last decision from the court," Chato remarked. According to him, the court should have made a final decision by Tuesday (May 7).
"If [the sacked governor and his deputies] are acquainted by the court, they will of course return to their positions," he added.
Of the 72 total candidates running for the governorship and two deputy positions, just one is a woman. The sole woman candidate is Jamila Obeidi, a former MP in Baghdad as part of former Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi’s led Al-Wataniya Alliance with former parliamentary speaker Salim al-Jabouri’s Sunni bloc.
Commenting on the qualifications candidates had to meet, Chato said "the person must be from Nineveh province, must have been involved in administrative affairs for at least 10 years, be a university graduate, and should not have a serious criminal record."
Hamadi is not the first governor of Nineveh to have been dismissed from his post. Former Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi was sacked by the Iraqi parliament when ISIS overran Mosul in June 2014.
Kurds and other minorities in diverse Nineveh hope to elect a candidate who will respect their rights and address their needs.
Of the 39 members of the Nineveh Provincial Council, currently nine of them are Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and three are Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), as well as two quota members from the Yezidi and Christian communities.
The security situation in northern Iraq is deteriorating on a daily basis with federal forces seemingly not coordinating with local security forces — similar to the pre-ISIS conditions in 2014. On Thursday morning a mukhtar and his family were killed in a village south of Mosul city. The attack was not immediately claimed by ISIS.
Governance in Nineveh is currently in a state of purgatory. There have been attempts in recent days to dissolve the provincial government amid ongoing accusations of widespread corruption and bribery.
