Political infighting in Iraqi Kurdistan could delay parliamentary elections

Elections for new parliament and president set to be held on November 18

A man waves a Kurdish flag as he sits upon the shoulders of another during a demonstration against Iran in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. AFP

Deep disagreements between the two major ruling political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan have thrown into doubt long-awaited parliamentary elections, which are set to be held in November.

The region held its last elections for the 111-seat parliament in 2018. A vote was supposed to be held last year but was postponed over differences between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

The differences are mainly over electoral constituency boundaries. The PUK wants to amend the current parliamentary elections law to divide the region into four constituencies.

Since last year, tensions have risen between the two parties over other issues, including power-sharing, assassinations of PUK-linked officials and sharing oil and gas revenue.

Local and international pressure to reconcile forced the two parties in March to agree on setting November 18 as the date for electing both a parliament and a president. This month, PUK ended its boycott of the region’s cabinet meetings.

But the positive atmosphere was spoiled on Monday.

In a parliament session, Speaker Rewaz Fayaq, who is affiliated to the PUK, was surprised by the addition of an item to discuss and vote on reactivating the region’s electoral commission without her consent.

She adjourned the session but her deputy Hamin Hawrami, a KDP member, asked for a show of hands, putting the reactivation to a vote.

A brawl erupted between politicians from the two parties with some seen climbing desks and tearing up papers in a video posted to the legislature's YouTube channel. Others traded punches.

The two sides have since entered into a legal battle.

The KDP claims the session was legal and therefore the electoral commission was reactivated after scoring the majority vote of 58 MPs, while the PUK refuses to acknowledge the vote, saying the deputy speaker has no authority to resume a session adjourned by the Speaker.

“The political agreement between all parties stipulates that amending the election law and reactivating the commission come in one package,” PUK senior member Mahmoud Khoshnawi told The National.

Asked whether Monday’s events affect the political scene in the region, Mr Khoshnawi said: “Yes, this affects the path of negotiation and, yes, it affects the political process in the region.”

He described the KDP move as “a miscarriage to [KDP leader] Masoud Barzani’s initiative to turn a new page and hold elections”.

“We call it a white coup, but a failed one,” he said. “It pushes PUK away, it further complicates the issue and it pushes the elections away from the political scene.”

During a visit to the town of Akre, the region's Prime Minister and KDP senior leader Masrour Barzani welcomed the parliament’s decision to reactivate the commission, saying there must be no obstacles in front of holding the elections later this year, reported Kurdish media outlet Rudaw.

“I commend the parliament for this important decision because the legitimacy of the Kurdistan Region was becoming truly questioned by our friends at home and abroad, on whether or not the people of Kurdistan believe in democracy and the electoral process,” said Mr Barzani.

Independent political analyst Kadhim Yawar said what happened in Monday’s session was “a surprise and made it clear that the two main parties in the region have real intractable problems”.

“Therefore, it has become very clear that it is hard for the political process in the region to move forward with only the two parties,” Mr Yawar told The National. He believes the elections could be delayed.

“There must be an intervention from the federal government and the electoral commission in Baghdad to draw a clear political path out and solve all these problems,” he added, suggesting the elections be supervised by the federal electoral commission instead.

“The doors are almost closed between the two parties and a deep and thorough political solution is needed in the region,” he said.

“If things continue like this, then problems will increase and the situation will get worse.”

For decades, the political scene in the region has been dominated by the two rival parties.

In the mid-1990s, when Saddam Hussein lost power in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, the PUK and KDP ignited a Kurdish civil war that killed and sent many more Kurds fleeing abroad as refugees. In 1998, the two sides stopped the fighting after signing a US-brokered deal.

After the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam and paved the way to recognise the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the 2005 constitution, the two parties entered a power-sharing deal.

The KDP currently holds 45 seats in parliament, trailed by the PUK, which has 21.