DUHOK, Kurdistan Region — With the upcoming May 12 Iraqi parliamentary elections, candidates are preparing to print campaign posters. Printing shop owners, wanting Kurdistan Region candidates to print at their shops and not elsewhere in Iraq or Turkey, have decreased their prices.
Twenty-three print shop owners in Duhok have dropped their prices for the political posters from $6 to $4 per meter. Yet candidates still are sending their posters to Turkey and other countries, drawing the ire of the local business owners.
"They take them to Turkey, to Baghdad, and print them. If they do it domestically, there are no issues. In Erbil, Duhok, or Sulaimani — these are still our printers. But when they take it abroad, outside Kurdistan, then it impacts us," Rizgar Haji, a print shop owner, told Rudaw.
Duhok's printers don’t believe the prices in Turkey are so much lower.
"I tell those who say that [it] is cheaper in Turkey, I will never believe it. Yes it is true when we charged $6 or $7 it was more expensive, but they are actually getting charged more than $4 in Turkey," said Younis Doski, a print house owner.
For those candidates who are yet to be funded by their parties for their campaigns, they seek lower prices. Some politicians believe keeping expenses local benefits the Region.
"The best thing is to get your things made here. Also the income returns domestically to the people here. However, sometimes the disparity in prices and the difference in costs lead one to think to print abroad," Diyar Tayb, a KDP candidate for the Iraqi parliamentary elections, told Rudaw.
Because of the Anfal anniversary, election campaigns in the Kurdistan Region will start a day later (April 15) than the rest of Iraq (April 14).
Iraq is set to hold parliamentary elections on May 12.
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