Parliamentary poll has seen a bitter contest in areas such as the Kurdish region, writes MICHAEL JANSENin Sulaimaniya, Iraq
THE RARE instances of violence in Iraq’s relatively peaceful autonomous Kurdish region have, so far, been directly related to the current election campaign.
In Sulaimaniya, armed hotheads belonging to the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) fired weapons at an election rally of the Goran, or “Change”, movement, prompting the authorities to impose a 9pm curfew on electioneering.
In Irbil, the regional capital, a Goran supporter was beaten up by PUK elements who had been tearing down Goran’s posters.
South of the border in Arab-majority provinces, violence has risen ahead of the March 7th poll, as predicted. But the assassination of two candidates and killing of tribal leaders and policemen are part and parcel of the seven-year struggle for control of Iraq being waged between the mainly Shia religious parties installed by the US, on one hand, and al-Qaeda, former Baathists, and other anti-US, anti-Shia forces on the other.
In January, 135 Iraqis were killed in this protracted warfare; in February, 211. The current flashpoint is the northern city of Mosul, where an al-Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, is battling Baghdad’s forces, the local Sunni-led administration, and Kurdish factions.
Mosul’s shrinking Christian community has been caught in between, with fatal results for 10 members of Iraq’s indigenous Chaldean church.
In all of Iraq’s 18 provinces, there is flagrant vote-buying involving cash payments, presents of blankets and pistols, and promises of jobs.
However, voters prefer money and gifts over promises that are unlikely to materialise. Both national and provincial authorities are expected to indulge in a certain amount of tampering with the electoral rolls and, on election day, ballot box stuffing and fraud. Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is accused of using government machinery to boost the prospects of his own “State of Law” coalition, while militias loyal to various factions are said to be involved in intimidation.
Here in the Kurdish region, the contest between the PUK and Goran is particularly bitter. Goran was established by a former PUK leader and hero, Nawshirwan Mustafa. The movement’s spokesman, Muhammad Tawfiq, tells The Irish Times it is campaigning on an anti-corruption platform. Although the election is for the national parliament, “all voting will be on local issues” such as the lack of electricity, jobs, and public services.
Goran calls for transparency and accountability in government, and co-operation with Baghdad in the oil sector. Tawfiq says Kurds must consult with the citizens of the disputed city of Kirkuk before pressing for its annexation by the Kurdish region.
Goran also calls for the induction of peshmerga (Kurdish factional fighters) into a regional army. At present, the PUK, led by Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, and its electoral ally, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani, have separate peshmerga formations deployed in the regions they dominate.
The PUK/KDP alliance is obliged to defend a dismal record of governance on the regional level, as well as the failure to secure Kurdish demands on the national level.
Salam Abdullah, a KDP spokesman, said the alliance intends to resolve the Kirkuk question in the life of the new parliament through a referendum. This has been repeatedly rejected by Arab and Turkomen residents of the city, who claim that Kurds have been imported from elsewhere to change the demography of the city, a key oil hub.
The bloc also rejects Goran’s call for the unification of the peshmerga.
“We have to fight corruption and terrorism in Baghdad, which is paving the way for dictatorship,” Abdullah has stated. “We are against sectarianism and [the exercise of] influence by outside powers,” notably Iran, through its Shia allies. We favour good relations, but not influence.”
Talabani says his party seeks to end violence against women, find the bodies of 182,000 Kurds killed by the ousted Baathist regime, assist the survivors of this campaign, and promote higher education. He observes: “We want candidates who support liberal democracy to win. We must change the ideas of the [Shia religious] representatives from the south.”
The firmly secular Kurdish bloc is likely to get along better with secular Arab parties deprived of candidates by bans imposed by governing Shias.