ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – As the Change Movement (Gorran) prepares for its first convention in Erbil this week, leader Nawshirwan Mustafa is engaged in efforts to reconcile several “discontented” members and persuade them to attend the important meeting.
A high-ranking Gorran official told Rudaw that Mustafa had visited the disgruntled former leaders, who were among the movement’s founders, at their homes. “It is not clear yet whether they will attend,” he said.
Osman Haji Mahmoud, Qadir Haji Ali, Salar Aziz and Osman Banimarani joined Mustafa when he broke away from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and formed Gorran in 2009.
However, in recent months and due to disagreements with Mustafa, these former Gorran officials have stayed away from the movement and its daily affairs.
“Mr. Mustafa has told them that they will have decision-making powers in the convention if they attend,” the Gorran official said. “But each one has provided his own answer without making any commitment.”
Salah Rashid, one of the Gorran officials who disagrees with the movement’s internal policies, confirmed a visit by Mustafa.
“Yes, Mustafa contacted us to attend the convention, but we haven’t given him an answer yet,” he said.
Soon after its foundation, Gorran won 25 seats in the Kurdish parliament in the 2009 elections. But it declined offers to join the cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and remained as the largest opposition party.
In the September 21 polls the movement won the second-largest number of votes, securing 24 seats in parliament. Mustafa has decided to join the KRG’s new cabinet.
To enter the government with strength, it appears that Mustafa needs the support of his veteran colleagues, who left him in November last year in objection to the structure of Gorran’s central assembly.
A well-placed source inside the party told Rudaw that the senior leaders will hold their own talks “to decide whether to answer Mustafa’s call to attend the convention or not.”
“All preparations for the convention have been completed already,” one of the leaders told Rudaw, adding that this was not a convention where the leadership of the party would be decided. “So we don’t know what our presence will be about. We might just go there to raise our hands in support of a decision we know nothing about,” he said.
The leader, who wished to remain unnamed, said that Gorran’s policies have not changed since he and his colleagues walked away in protest.
“Gorran is now like a shop, it is run by one man,” he complained.
This leader claimed that he and his colleagues, who are unhappy with Mustafa, were behind Gorran’s victory in the September election.
“Had it not been for us who encouraged people to vote for Gorran, the movement wouldn’t have won so many votes,” he said.
For his part, Banimarani said that he and the four leaders are “unaware of the agenda of the convention and we don’t know what Mustafa intends to do after the convention.”
As Mustafa and his movement gear up for the convention, Gorran official Safin Malaqara, said that non-attendance would not go over well.
“We won’t like it if they don’t attend the convention. Their non-participation will have its impact,” he said.
In response to the concern of the discontented leaders about Mustafa’s dominance over the movement, Malaqara said: “At the convention Mustafa’s record will be criticized and evaluated, too.”
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