Local elections were held in Iraq’s 15 provinces, excluding the Kurdistan Region, on Monday. Kurds were able to gain at least seven seats in the 16-seat Kirkuk provincial council, according to preliminary results.
The PUK, which won five seats in Kirkuk, eyes the position of the governor.
Stran Abdullah, a politburo member of the PUK, told Rudaw’s Arez Khalid on Thursday that his party has the right to claim the position.
“We think that we have the right to claim the position of Kirkuk governor because the PUK has emerged as the main winner of Kurdish votes in Kirkuk,” said Abdullah, adding that his party will launch talks with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which gained two seats in the province, over the formation of the next local government.
The position of Kirkuk governor has mostly been held by PUK members but the party lost the position in 2017 after a Kurdish independence referendum in the province prompted attacks by the federal forces, leading to the withdrawal of Kurdish Peshmerga from the disputed province. An unelected Arab, Rakan al-Jabouri, has been running the position since then. He has already begun his efforts to maintain the position.
Kurds need the support of other ethnic groups in Kirkuk to form the local government and restore the position of the governor.
Final results of the vote have yet to be announced. Abdullah said they could gain another seat in Kirkuk as some votes have yet to be counted.
Nibras Abu Soda, a member of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission's (IHEC) media unit, told Rudaw that they had received 118 complaints from the political parties that took part in Monday’s provincial elections without revealing the details.
The overall voter turnout reached 41 percent, higher than the parliamentary elections in 2021 despite the boycott by influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The councils were dissolved in 2019 in response to demands by Tishreen protesters who criticized the system for its failures and for enabling corruption.
