Kurdistan
Undated picture of Kurdistan Region election banners in Erbil. Photo: Bilind T. Abdullah/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region said they are working on forming an alliance for the federal parliamentary elections.
“For the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in November of this year, we are ready to form a large alliance with forces outside the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,” Shadman Hassan, a member of the People’s Front (Baray Gal), told Rudaw on Friday.
Baray Gal was founded by Lahur Talabany in 2022. It secured two seats in the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary election last October.
Hassan said the goal of the alliance is to consolidate the opposition vote and they are willing to work with any party other than the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
“In the past two elections, opposition parties were scattered and instead of coordinating, they opposed each other. For this election, if the opposition does not reorganize itself and doesn't have an effective unified discourse, it will significantly reduce its votes,” he said.
A key hurdle will be regaining people’s trust, Hassan explained.
“People in the Kurdistan Region have lost trust in the opposition because previously the Change Movement, which was an influential opposition force, very cheaply put its opposition status at the service of the authorities and became part of the existing problems,” he said.
The Change Movement (Gorran) stormed onto the political stage in 2009, coming second place in its first election after campaigning on a platform of political and economic reforms. It lost favour with voters, however, when it joined a power-sharing government with the KDP and PUK after the 2013 election. That was the first of a series of controversial decisions the party made that alienated its support base and Gorran now has just one seat in the Kurdistan Region parliament.
Fatih Sangawi, a member of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) in the Kurdistan Parliament, said his party is willing to join an opposition front.
“We call for the formation of an effective opposition front in the Kurdistan Region, because currently opposition forces constitute only 30% of the Kurdistan Region's political process, but they are scattered,” he said.
“Let the citizens of the Kurdistan Region witness from now, if the opposition parties unite in an alliance, then the Kurdistan Islamic Union will certainly be part of that alliance and will not remain alone,” he said.
Sangawi said his party is in contact with other opposition groups at various levels and is actively working to form an alliance.
The KIU experienced a significant decline in parliamentary representation between the 2013 and 2018 elections, dropping from 10 seats to five after they joined the government.
In the 2024 vote, KIU’s seats witnessed a humble jump to seven and the party has decided to remain in opposition. It and the other opposition parties are skeptical about participating in the government, fearing that joining the KDP-PUK coalition might alienate their supporters.
A member of the Supreme Council of the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal) said that there is momentum among the opposition parties for forming a united front.
“We are optimistic about forming an opposition front for the Iraqi elections, and we see serious intention from all opposition parties for creating that alliance,” Shwan Rabar told Rudaw.
According to Rabar, opposition parties are under heavy pressure from the authorities, partly due to their fragmentation and he believes an alliance would strengthen their influence in both the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
“Creating a broad opposition front is not opposition to the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. On the contrary, it's for changing the balance of power and rebuilding the foundations of the Kurdistan Region, which ultimately, if the Region becomes stable and strong internally and in Baghdad, everyone will benefit from it,” he said.
The opposition parties are not alone in floating the idea of joining forces for the Iraqi election. PUK leader Bafel Talabani has proposed running on a joint list with the KDP.
In the last Kurdistan Parliament election, New Generation won 15 seats, the KIU seven seats, the Halwest took four seats, Komal three seats, the People's Front has two, and Gorran one.
The KDP came out on top, securing 39 spots in the 100-member legislature. The PUK came in second with 23 seats. There are also five quota seats for ethnic and religious minorities.
Since no single party won a majority, a governing coalition will need to be formed, as has traditionally been the case. Negotiations between KDP and PUK are ongoing but have yet to produce concrete results. The parliament has sat just one time since the election.
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