Controversial Elections in the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government

The parliamentary elections were held in Iraq at 12 May 2018, however, the outcomes were so debatable and, at the same time, doubtful for many sides, especially for those who expected more success from the results. That’s why several months have passed since the elections but still a new formation of government could not be formulated. There is no doubt that the Iraqi elections during the campaigns, had accelerated the tensions between the parties in the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), indeed after the announcement of the results they accused each other of carrying out fraud and corruption in the results. Briefly speaking, the Iraqi elections and its outcomes were far from satisfactory for the parties in KRG, except for the ones who received remarkable votes from their voters and haven’t lost their previous voters.
Now another elections which were supposed to be held on November 1, 2017 are to be hold in the KRG on September 30, 2018. Now only less than a month has been left for the KRG elections, but there are still so many debates and doubts regarding the holding of the elections; furthermore, the delay for the election campaigns for a week has supported such doubts, although all of the parties have denied the claim that they have asked for any postponements. Here the questions arose; why is still there uncertainty in the holding of elections? What do the rumors mean regarding the postponement of the elections? What do the sides and political parties demand?
KRG at any condition and each time has insisted on democratization process and the holding of the elections as one of the main tools for achieving and stabilizing democracy. Now when it comes to the field, all of the parties insist on the same views that they favor and back up the holding of the elections, but behind the scenes, the views are opposite to what have been mostly expressed to public, and none of them dare to express clearly their real views.

A General Evaluation of Situations since 2013
Since the last elections of 2013, so many events happened in the KRG, which were all more defined as a recession era for the region. A prominent one among them is the economic deterioration in KRG, once they could not reach any negotiation with Baghdad on so many political issues, a vast reaction came from Baghdad by cutting the budget and this did harm to KRG in every sector, especially the government sector which was not even able to pay the employees monthly, even until now a permanent solution has not been achieved in this regard. Another event which is more important was KRG referendum which was held September 15, 2017 for independency from the Federal Government of Iraq. Although more than 93 percent of population voted for the separation, the outcome wasn’t paid very easily by both the government and population, that’s why in October 16, 2017 another set of crucial events occurred and all of the disputed areas which controlled by Kurdish forces have been lost. There has been no obvious explanation from the parties regarding this issue till now, except the accusations towards each other. In brief, during the last term of election from 2013 till now the situations could not be evaluated positively in all aspects for the KRG, that’s why it even affected the Iraqi elections.
All these events during that time had a vital impact on population, and it resulted in fewer turnouts in the Iraqi elections. Population could not see any meaning in the demand for separation but they still voted for the candidates of KRG, which could not have any tangible achievements through its previous candidates in Baghdad. Furthermore, the doubts regarding the results of the Iraqi elections that are accused of fraud and corruption prompted the society to lose their trust towards the parties with no exceptions. This was more obvious when 52 percent of the eligible voters didn’t even cast their votes, meaning that a larger rate of population has not even voted for any larger or smaller parties and preferred to not make their voice heard, and to have any role in shaping the political society of Iraq.
The aims of the people belonging to a fully democratic society are to make changes and to choose those who can provide hope for more developments, and both economic and political stabilities. However, it seems that most of the voters in the KRG could be called as “loyal voters” or “disciplined voters”, meaning that some of the political parties at any situation won’t lose their votes from such voters to some extent, and they are divided in a very organized way according to the cities. That’s why the KRG elections will probably be very similar with the outcomes of the Iraqi elections’. That’s why some of the parties prefer to delay the elections in which they know that they can’t get enough votes and for which are not very well – prepared. On the other hand, the parties which have “loyal voters” from whom they constantly get their votes don’t have any fear of holding the elections.

What do the political parties demand?
Every party in the KRG has its own justification and excuses in delaying the elections, but at the same time as mentioned above, there are some parties insisting that the elections have to take place in due time. Regardless of these rumors, propaganda period for the elections started on 11 September 2018. At the beginning of the rumors of delaying all the time some parties such as Kurdistan Democratic party (KDP) have announced that they back up the holding of the elections in due time, and they have highlighted that there are no justification for postponing it and refused that any political party has officially asked for any postponement. This is mostly because KDP has achieved the most of the votes in Iraqi elections among the Kurdish political parties and doesn’t see any obstacles for achieving better results for the KRG elections.
As mentioned earlier, the political parties satisfied with the Iraqi election results mostly favor the holding of the elections, that’s why the New Generation led by Shaswar Abdulwahid who could mobilize the population to some extend during the Iraqi elections and fill the vacuum created by the other opposition parties. They have taken a stance against any postponement of the KRG elections and highlighted that it’s already been too late, and they would see any postponement as an undemocratic and illegitimate action.
On the other hand, the other political parties favor the delay of the elections, and their general argument is that KRG is not ready for elections, and the list of voters have to be cleaned from illegal names and duplicate names so that accurate results could be obtained in opposition to what have been achieved from the Iraqi elections. That’s why Coalition for Democracy and Justice (Hawpaimani) has recently announced in a press conference in a quite clear manner that it would not participate in the elections if the list of voters would not be clarified and more preparations done for the KRG elections. However, in fact, it seems to have other justification behind the scene. Barham Salih who is leading Hawpaimani is one of the former Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) members. He had more expectations from the Iraqi elections. Even when he was in PUK, he had the desire of being elected as the president of Iraq, but by the formation of the Hawpaimani, he tried to fulfill his expectations within this coalition after the Iraqi elections, but the outcomes were far from being satisfactory and indeed very much disappointing.
Furthermore, PUK also favors the delay of the elections as it tries to have a better understating about the sharing of power with KDP before the elections both in KRG and Iraq, so that they can have  more time for achieving a result in this regard. What’s more, some Kurdish politicians think that KRG has been in a deep diversion, and due to the Iraqi elections, the community has been diversified more deeply and that more diversions may do harm to the community more. That’s why they favor the unification of the Kurds in Baghdad, and to have a united position in the capital, and then go to the local elections in KRG.
On the other hand, Change Movement (Gorran), the opposition party, is one of the parties that insist on the delay of the KRG elections. After the death of Nawsherwan Mustafa, the leader, a division has occurred in their headquarter about many issues. In the wake of their leader’s death, a weakness could be noticed in the administration of Gorran as an opposition front, creating a huge vacuum in the leadership section of the party. That’s why they could not mobilize the public, and they don’t have a strong rhetoric to persuade people to vote as they have done before. At the same time, there is disappointment among the people as Gorran took part in the formation of the government and lost its prestige as an opposition party.  Nevertheless, once this party emerged in the political arena, people had hoped that it could make a change and pave the way for positive developments. For that reason Gorran wants the delay of the elections. However, they also present other justifications regarding the postponement of the elections, for instance they state that the Iraqi elections were not fair elections and claimed that they do not prefer to reparticipate in an unfair election.
It’s important to mention that the positions of the rest of political parties seem to be neutral such as the Islamic political parties and other parties attached to particular components; they haven’t highlighted their position very precisely. They have stated to consider the democratic values and elections as one of the main tools, and as one of the wills of population that have to represented. But they also announced that in case a common ground can be found among the parties, they won’t stand against it.
Apart from the will of the political parties, it’s significant to mention that the KRG has insisted that they have done their preparations for the elections and no political party has officially asked for any delay yet. In case they decide on any postponement for a certain period of time, there is no doubt that it will damage the democratic values and ignore the importance of the will of the people. However, in this stage, it seems that the achievements of the desires of the political parties in Baghdad have more importance than the general will, because with no elections, there is no chance for any development or change to occur in the KRG and this pushes KRG into a worse situation. Moreover, the elections are one of the main values of democratization and with no elections, a society may lose all of the achievements it has gained so far. However, the elections in societies where democracy has not been instilled into the culture and the way of life may lead to more chaos and instability. But at any condition if any society wants to go forward in consolidating and instilling the democratic values into its culture, and if it still claims that it is democratic, it has to hold elections as a main value of democratic system, and to make sure that there are no any other means for coming into the power.