All the factions in the provincial council voted for the bill, which is permitted under provincial laws approved by the Kurdistan parliament in 2009 and entitle provinces to have a decentralized governance system. The laws have not been enforced yet.
The decentralization proposal will be submitted to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Council of Ministers for implementation.
In their meeting, council members discussed the province’s income. They stated that the income of the province should be clear and known in order for a decentralized system to be approved.
The annual income of the province of Sulaimani is estimated to be more than 260 billion Iraqi Dinars (IQD, based on the province’s 2015 income. A provincial council member, however, said that Sulaimani’s income is currently more than this figure, reaching well above 300 billion IQD.
The Sulaimani Provincial Council has been mired in controversy amid tensions between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Gorran (Change Movement).
The dispute extends back to the 2014 provincial elections when Gorran’s candidate Haval Abubakir won the popular vote but was short of securing the all-important confidence vote in the provincial council as the PUK blocked his ascendance to power.
PUK accused Abubakir of having been a former Baath sympathizer in the late 1980s and refused to endorse his taking office, despite Gorran’s landslide victory.
Abubakir has denied links to the Baath party and accused the PUK of undermining the popular vote.
The two parties reached a power-sharing deal that saw them sharing the governorship. PUK’s Aso Faridon took the office of governor for two years with the agreement he would leave the post in 2016 to be replaced by Abubakir.
Under Kurdistan’s laws, the governor-elect must receive endorsement from the president of the Region before assuming office. Gorran refused to seek such endorsement from Masoud Barzani. Gorran does not recognize Barzani’s prolonged mandate, extended in 2015. The party said seeking presidential support for Abubakir would be an approval of Barzani’s continued presidency.
The position of governor of Sulaimani has been vacant since the acting governor, Sardar Qadir, resigned in early May.
“I resign from my post as I am unable to speak about the grievances of people. Neither am I able to do much for the civil servants whose wages have been cut, or speak about the popular protests,” Qadir said in his resignation statement.
