SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Last week’s provincial elections in the Kurdistan Region so far show that the popularity of the Islamic Union of Kurdistan (Yekgirtu) has declined, while secular parties are on the rise.
“We ran the best election campaign, but our candidates in Erbil and Sulaimani were not as strong as our candidates in Duhok,” said Abubakir Haladeni, a leadership member of Yekgirtu, speaking about the reasons behind his party’s setback in the recent polls.
According to Rudaw statistics obtained from reliable sources, Yekgirtu won 188,228 votes in the April 30 Iraqi legislative elections, while it won 214,222 votes in 2010 – a drop of more than 25,000 votes.
In addition to the Iraqi legislative elections, the Kurdistan Region also held its first provincial poll in a decade last month, where Kurdish secular and Islamist parties ran an intense election campaign to woo Kurdish voters.
In the Kurdistan Region, Yekgirtu received 150,003 votes in the provincial polls, compared to 186,741 votes in last September parliamentary elections, losing 36,000 votes in less than eight months.
Yekgirtu lost votes in Sulaimani and Erbil provinces, while its ballots increased in Duhok province, which has been a transitional stronghold of the party after the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
“There are several factors that need to be studied and identified,” said Mohammad Ahmed, another top official of the Party. “It might be because of our candidates. We had strong candidates in Badinan (Duhok),” he reasoned.
Yekgirtu was established in 1994 by Salahaddin Bahaaddin as a moderate Islamic party. In 1999, the group participated in municipal elections and won a victory in the towns of Said Sadiq, Halabja, and Sirwan and become the second most popular party in Badinan and in Sulaimani province.
But in the latest provincial polls, Yekgirtu lost its strongholds in Sulaimani and Halabja, including in Halabja city, and the districts of Said Sadiq and Sirwan. There, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Change Movement (Gorran) came in first and second place.
The loss in Halabja in particular could have come as a shock to Yekgirtu leaders, because many of its leaders come from the town, which was once considered the party’s stronghold.
According to Ahmed, Yekgirtu won the city of Halabja, but lost the province. “We are leading the results inside the city of Halabja, but PUK has gained more votes in the areas surrounding Halabja.”
Haladeni also attributed the setbacks to the KDP and PUK’s control over the government and its power. “Unlike KDP and PUK, we are not in control of the interests of Kurdish people so that we could force them to vote for Yekgirtu. Those who voted for us proved their loyalty and truthfulness,” he said.
Other Yekgirtu members believe that the election campaign was wrong.
“Yekgirtu’s supporters were not satisfied with the form our election campaign,” said Ismael, head of Yekgirtu’s election center in Sulaimani. “But I still don’t think that our campaign process was flawed,” he said.
In Erbil, the Islamic League of Kurdistan (Komal) fielded Mala Ismael Shoshkaiee, a popular personality in the city, as its candidate, and some party officials believe that some Yekgirtu votes went to Komal’s candidate.
Party officials have called for a swift and effective review of the party’s structure, strategy and leadership to halt a further decline. They urge that the defeat must be recognized as a lesson for the future.
“The leadership must admit the setbacks bravely and pay the price,” wrote Hiwa Sabir, a top leadership official of Yekgirtu. “Proper measures for reform and change have to be taken and a conference should be held,” he advised.
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