ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The People’s Front (Baray Gal), whose leader Lahur Talabany is currently imprisoned, said on Saturday that it cannot afford a physical campaign for Iraq’s parliamentary elections. The majority of its campaign is being conducted online.
Baray Gal “has no money for election campaigning,” Shadman Mala Hassan, a senior party member, told Rudaw on Saturday.
“We haven't hung posters in any city and it's still not clear whether we can conduct public activities or not,” he said. The party’s candidates are running their campaigns on social media.
Hassan also claimed that security forces in Sulaimani, Halabja and Kirkuk, where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is dominant, is putting pressure on those campaigning for Baray Gal.
The police have denied the charge.
“The police have not prevented any party or candidate and we are not aware that any other security force has done this,” a senior security official told Rudaw on the condition of anonymity.
Lahur Talabany, the head of Baray Gal party, is a former co-president of the PUK. He was arrested in August following a violent standoff between his armed loyalists and security personnel. Sulaimani security forces (Asayish) then released what they said were confessions from a group linked to Talabany, detailing a plot to assassinate PUK leader Bafel Talabani. Baray Gal has denied the accusations.
The charges against the Baray Gal leader are related to criminal conspiracy and murder.
Tensions have been high between cousins Bafel Talabani and Lahur Talabany since 2021 when Bafel forced him out of the PUK leadership. Talabany went on to form his own party, Baray Gal, which stands in opposition to the PUK and currently holds two seats in the Kurdistan Parliament.
Speaking at a forum in Erbil on Tuesday, Bafel Talabani said the evidence - including Lahur’s televised admission of running “a militia” - was “overwhelming” and “cannot be forged.”
Campaigning for Iraq’s parliamentary election began on October 3 and will continue until November 8. The vote will be held on November 11. Official data shows that 7,768 candidates, representing 31 alliances, 38 parties, 23 independent campaigns and 56 quota seat contenders are vying for spots in the 329-seat Iraqi parliament.
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