ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s parliament has set April 1, 2020 as the date for provincial council elections to be held across Iraq, including the disputed city of Kirkuk – a move opposed by Kurdish parties who fear Kurds displaced from the city will be stripped of their voting rights.
A Monday Iraqi parliament session, attended by 217 MPs and extending to well after 10 PM, approved an amendment of Election Law of Provincial Councils, setting the election date of April 2020. The draft was recommended by the Regions and Districts Committee, aiming to "hold free, transparent and fair elections."
The amendment exempts the Kurdistan Region, however, which will conduct its own provincial elections.
Major Kurdish parties have voiced their disapproval of the decision to include Kirkuk, a Kurdish-majority city outside of the Kurdistan Region.
Viyan Sabri, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc, told Rudaw: "We did not vote for the article in the [amended] law which talks about a provincial election in Kirkuk, and we boycotted the session because we believe that the administrative and security situation in Kirkuk should first be normalized."
Kirkuk was captured by Iraqi and Hashd al-Shaabi forces on October 16, 2017, following nearly three years of Kurdish control.
The KDP did not participate in the latest Iraqi May 12 parliamentary elections in Kirkuk, calling the city “occupied” and demanding the normalization of the province’s politics and security.
Though the PUK participated in those elections, it too disagreed with the amendment, with four of its six Kirkuk MPs walking out of the vote in protest.
“This [walking out of the parliament] is the stance of the PUK Kirkuk Politburo and Kirkuk leadership Council members of PUK,” claimed Taha, adding this was also the stance of “Kirkuk’s Kurds”.
Other Kurdish parties such as KDP and Gorran have supported the walkout, Rebwar Taha, a prominent PUK Kirkuk MP in the Iraqi parliament, explained to Rudaw.
"The other Kurdish factions have always said that they will leave matters of Kirkuk to Kirkuk's MPs,” adding that the PUK has given its Kirkuk MPs and leadership the liberty to act as they wish on the matter.
Taha says that the MPs mainly oppose a particular section of the amendment law, stipulating that Kirkuk’s voter list be based upon Iraqi ID and ration cards.
“This problem has existed in Kirkuk since 2005. Arabs and Turkmen have doubts about Kirkuk’s voter list. They think it requires revising through a mechanism that depends on food ration cards and IDs,” Taha explained to Rudaw English on Tuesday.
Turkmen have been particularly vocal about what they call “Kurdish demographic change,” with Turkmen Front leader Arshad Salehi claiming in mid-July that Kurds have settled as many as 600,000 other Kurds from Erbil, Sulaimani and neighboring countries in Kirkuk.
The new amendment strips many Kurds, deported from Kirkuk to Erbil and elsewhere during the notorious Baath campaign of Arabization, of their voting rights, Taha said.
Taha added that areas cut off from Kirkuk administratively, such as Kalar in the Kurdistan Region, will also be stripped of voting rights.
“According to Article 140, these are considered Kirkukis. But with this mechanism, their names will be removed from the voting list and lose their voting right,” added Taha.
In a potential solution for Kurds from Kirkuk, he insisted on the insertion of another section into the amendment that would allow Kurds cleared by the Article 140 Investigative Committee to belong to Kirkuk, to “guarantee” their right to vote.
