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21:th March
15:00
Mazher Xaleqi
xaleqi.com
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Kurds Head to the Polls
Kurdistannetwork - July 25, 2009
Hewler, Southern Kurdistan - Iraqi Kurds ended voting on Saturday in elections expected to keep President Masoud Barzani in power in Kurdistan and unlikely to allay voters' worries about corruption or end a feud with Baghdad over land and oil.
Polls closed at 12:00 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) after voting was extended one hour in the largely autonomous region. Ballots will be counted in Baghdad, the official tally expected to take at least 2-3 days.
The people of the relatively peaceful northern enclave elected their president directly this time, unlike in 2005 polls that voted only for parliament. Former guerrilla leader Barzani looks certain to defeat his five competitors.
Women in colorful dresses and patterned headscarves smiled as they showed purple-stained fingers to TV cameras after voting.
But a network of civil society groups monitoring the polls said turnout by mid-afternoon had been relatively low at 30-35 percent across Kurdistan's three governorates.
Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the region's powerful ruling parties, are running for seats on a joint list against 23 alliances of smaller parties.
Barzani and other Kurdish leaders have churned out fiery rhetoric in recent weeks about claims to territories they contest with Baghdad's Arab-led government.
Diplomats and analysts see the row over oil-producing Kirkuk and other disputed areas as a major threat to Iraq's long-term stability as sectarian violence fades; but many Kurds support Barzani's hardline approach against Baghdad, from where Saddam Hussein launched deadly attacks against Kurds in the 1980s.
-Kirkuk for Kurdish people is a red line. No parties competing can be seen to back down on it,- said Ferhad Mohammed, deputy editor of Kurdistan's weekly Gulan magazine.
The Kurd-Arab row has held up critical energy laws in the national parliament and complicates government efforts to secure investment in the oil sector, the anchor of Iraq's economy.
-I am hoping for a more effective parliament,- said Mohammed Salar, 60, a government worker in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, -and a return of our ransacked land.-
Barzani, wearing a red turban and baggy Kurdish trousers, held up his purple-stained finger after voting in Salahuddin.
He renewed his defense of a plan laid out in Iraq's 2005 constitution for settling control of Kirkuk, even though Arab politicians and the United Nations have backed away from it.
-I will never compromise on Kirkuk,- he said.
Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, the president's nephew, signaled the Kurdish stance may change after the polls.
-We hope after the election we will be able to sit down at the negotiating table with Baghdad and resolve the issue of Kirkuk ... We as Kurds are willing to show flexibility.-
ALL CHANGE?
Speaking during a trip to Washington, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the vote would -have a big role in solving problems and differences we inherited from the past regime.-
Critics of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) accuse it of widespread official corruption, abuses by security forces, media intimidation and an atmosphere that stifles dissent.
An alliance hoping to capitalize on disenchantment is the Change list, run by independent candidate Noshwan Mustafa.
-(Politicians) just put money in their own pockets. We need new people in power,- said supporter Hameed Abu-Bakr, 24.
While the polls are not expected to end the region's two-party hegemony, Change officials hope for up to a third of the 111 seats in the Kurdish parliament.
-We are seeking to win the elections but, no matter what, we will consider ourselves winners because for the first time there has been fierce competition,- Mustafa told Reuters TV.
His party complained of scattered voting problems.
-We haven't witnessed anything like that. Everything has been good,- said Rene Turner, a civil society election monitor.
Abdilselam Berwari of the KDP Political Studies Center, said he expected the PUK-KDP alliance took 65-75 percent of the vote.
The alliance is emphasizing accountability and notes that Kurds are proud of their relatively prosperous enclave, which flourished while the rest of Iraq descended into bloody chaos and insurgency after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
-Under Saddam, we had nothing. Thanks to Barzani, now we have growth and democracy,- said Arbil voter Herman Amil.
(Additional reporting in Sulaimaniya by Sherko Raouf; writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Mohammed Abbas and Ralph Boulton)
By Tim Cocks and Shamal Aqrawi
Source: Reuters
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