SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - Officials of the newly-established Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) dismiss reports that their founder Barham Salih is planning to rejoin the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) from which he split, believing that it would be "political suicide" for the veteran politician and his party.
"Dr. Barham, as Barham Ahmed Salih, will not return to the PUK," Mohammed Rauf, member of the founding board of CDJ said. "He will do no such thing. If he does it, then it is political suicide. He has enough experience in life on his own."
Rauf argued that the PUK is the same party with the same flaws that Salih left for.
"Thus, Dr. Barham has left a party with whose system and governance he is dissatisfied," he said. "What has changed for Dr. Barham to go back into the PUK?"
Salih who served as prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and as Iraq's deputy prime minister was also a deputy of PUK leader Jalal Talabani for a number of years.
Salih's CDJ fared poorly in Iraq’s May 12th election. Along with other Kurdish parties Salih accused Kurdistan Region's two main parties the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of vote rigging despite a manual recount of the votes and their approval by Iraq's federal court.
The results of the May elections will not dampen their spirits, CDJ officials say.
"Undoubtedly the CDJ is an ongoing project and will persist," Hanna Qassim, member of CDJ's general council, said. "It has its own regime and program. It is a political entity, so it will continue its work."
Rumors circulated in recent weeks particularly on Facebook and Twitter pages that Salih had been offered the post of Iraq's president if he agreed to leave CDJ and rejoined the PUK.
Dana Naqi, member of CDJ public relations department said that CDJ is a professional institution and won't be closed on a whim.
"I don't think CDJ could fall through an arbitrary decision," he said.
Firmesk Othman, a member of CDJ's general council believes that the rumors and reports of Salih getting cold feet about his project may stem from his meetings and negotiations with other parties.
"We have said it before that our doors are open to all parties on the basis of national dialogue and to come an agreement on the basis of the rights of Kurds," said Othman.
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