NOVEMBER 2017

IRAQ today
Iraqi Kurds postpone elections
amid tensions with Baghdad
Simultaneous legislative, presidential elections due for November 1
postponed by 8 months amid tensions over disputed territory with Baghdad.
ARBIL
Parliament in Iraq’s autonomous
Kurdish region decided Tuesday
to hold legislative elections
in eight months after they were delayed
amid tensions with the central
government in Baghdad over disputed
territories.
Regional legislative and presidential
elections had both been due on
November 1 but were delayed after
Baghdad seized a swathe of territory
from Kurdish forces following an independence
vote.
There was no immediate word on
a new date for a presidential election
“The Kurdistan parliament decided...
to postpone the parliamentary
elections in the autonomous region
by eight months,” Islamic Union of
Kurdistan parliamentarian Bahzad
Zebari said.
Farsat Sofi of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) of long-time
Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said
parliament would choose the date for
legislative and presidential elections.
The elections were originally set
for just over a month after a September
25 referendum in the Kurdish areas
which resulted in a massive “yes”
for independence.
The referendum, set in motion
by Barzani, was strongly opposed by
Baghdad.
Iraqi forces last week swept into
the oil-rich Kirkuk province in the
north, restoring it and Kurdish-held
parts of Nineveh and Diyala provinces
to central government control.
The rapid Kurdish retreat triggered
recriminations among Kurdish
politicians and prompted the regional
parliament to postpone both
elections.
“Parliament has decided to freeze
the activities of the Kurdistan presidency,”
Zebari said on Tuesday.
This body includes Barzani,
his vice-president Kosrat Rasul of
KDP rival the Patriotic Union of
Iraqi Kurdistan’s main opposition party called for Barzani to step down
Kurdistan (PUK), and the head of
the presidential cabinet, Fuad Hussein.
Its freezing, and the fact that parliament
did not extend its mandate
again, represent a major blow to Barzani.
On Sunday, Iraqi Kurdistan’s
main opposition party called for Barzani
to step down after the loss of
Kurdish-controlled territory.
Shoresh Haji of the Goran movement,
which holds 24 out of 111 seats
in the Iraqi Kurdish parliament, said
both Barzani and Rasul should quit.
“The Kurdistan region’s president
and his deputy no longer have any legitimacy
and should resign,” he said.
Haji called for the creation of a
“national salvation government” to
prepare for dialogue with Baghdad
and organize new elections.
The mandate of Barzani, the
first and only elected president of
the autonomous Kurdish region,
expired in 2013.
It was extended for two years
and then continued in the chaos
that followed the Islamic State
group’s sweeping offensive across
Iraq in 2014.
Under the autonomous region’s
laws, it was Barzani who had set general
elections for November 1.
Tuesday’s vote now means that
parliament will decide the new electoral
calendar, several parliamentarians
said.
A month after scoring a major
victory in the independence referendum,
Barzani now finds himself
increasingly isolated both at home
and abroad.
The United States, a key ally of
both Baghdad and Kurdish forces in
the battle against IS, opposed the
non-binding referendum, as did nations
including Iraq’s neighbors Iran
and Turkey.
Article courtesy of Middle East Online
16 CHALDEAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2017