SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: Iraqis voting in Saturday’s election in the self-ruled Kurdish north expressed hope it would shake up the entrenched regional government and help reduce long-standing tension with Baghdad over oil and land disputes that threaten the country’s stability.
The election for the region’s president and 111-seat Parliament will test a political establishment that has kept the semiautonomous region relatively safe but faces allegations of corruption and has often clashed with the Arab-dominated central government.
“Today is a revenge day against the main parties,” said 44-year-old Shobo Mahmoud shortly after casting his ballot in Sulaimaniyah, 260 km northeast of Baghdad. “We are suffering from poor public services despite all the promises they made before and the support we gave to these politicians.” The two dominant political coalitions, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, face a challenge from new opposition alliances seeking to capitalize on alleged misconduct and corruption.
The leaders of the two main coalitions, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani, hope their parties can withstand the burgeoning challenge.
The opposition is expected to make some inroads in the Parliament. Iraq’s election commission said it could take a week to count the results. Talabani, who was one of the first to cast his ballot, called the election “an important and crucial period and a step forward for a bigger democracy in the region and Iraq.” As security has improved in Iraq, US military commanders have viewed tension between Kurds and Arabs, particularly around oil-rich city of Kirkuk, as one of the greatest threats to Iraq’s stability. US President Barack Obama has pressured Iraq’s central government to be more flexible about sharing power and allowing provincial governments a greater role in decision-making.
But the government is wary about ceding too much authority to the Kurds for fear that they will attempt to secede at some point and take the region’s wealth of oil resources with them.
Khalid Najib, a 67-year-old retired teacher from Sulaimaniyah, said he hoped the new government would work with Baghdad to resolve their differences. “I hope that the next government will be free from tribal and party influences, and adopts no hard-line stances against Baghdad and other Arabs in Iraq,” Najib said.
Security measures were tightened in the region’s three northern provinces — Irbil, Dahuk and Sulaimaniyah — for Saturday’s election, and the 2.5 million eligible voters were only allowed to walk or take government authorized buses to polling centers. Polling centers were also set up in Baghdad for Kurdish lawmakers and others to cast their ballots.
