Centralism not compatible for Iraq, says KRG Deputy PM

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani on Wednesday said that centralism “will not work” in Iraq because of the diversity of the country, adding that equitable governing is needed.

“Centralism will not work in Iraq, has not worked in Iraq. Centralism will only work in Iraq if Iraq once again becomes a dictatorship. This country is too diverse, there are too many different groups, ethnicities, and different ideologies,” he said at the MERI forum 2023 in Erbil. 
The centralization of the political system in Iraq would imply that Baghdad would hold supreme power. 

“The whole point of liberating Iraq from tyranny in 2003, the whole point of the engagement of the international community back then, the war that led to so many deaths and destruction” is to put a better system into place, Talabani said. 

Centralization is widely used as a political system across the Middle East but it has received in Iraq since the change of the regime following the war in 2003.

Talabani questioned the governing system in the Kurdistan Region and the duties of certain positions, greatly stressing the need to get rid of the “chaos” and enact administrative reforms.

“If we want to address the issue of administration for good and have an administration that is good … that the public can see who is in charge of what, then we need a constitution, and the constitution needs to be clear in authorizing which entity is in charge of what,” Talabani said.
A draft of a Kurdistan Region constitution, written by academics and legal experts, was submitted to the Kurdistan parliament in 2009 but was never passed due to disputes over certain articles.

President Barzani asked the parliament and Council of Ministers to form a committee to finalize the constitution last year, Shahab said. Several meetings were also held but yielded no results.

Two years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US, the majority of Arabs, Kurds, and others voted for a constitution for the country.
Kurdish political parties have been struggling to agree on a constitution since then.

“It does not have to have unity, but it has to be clear, it has to be implementable,” Talabani said about a potential constitution of the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdistan Region currently relies on a series of laws, instructions, and norms as a substitution for the constitution. It also heavily relies on the Iraqi constitution for numerous issues, especially those related to crime.

In February, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein urged the need to establish a “decentralization and federal” system in Iraq which he said he has strongly fought for. Hussein also said that the Iraqi constitution is incompatible with a centralist culture.

“We need real decentralization here within the Kurdistan Region,” Talabani said. 

Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have been at loggerheads in recent months over the Region’s parliamentary elections, the transparency of the oil and local income of the provinces under their influence, and the assassination of a former PUK colonel in Erbil in October.

The Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections are set to be held in February, over a year removed from its originally scheduled date. The Region was set to hold the elections last year, but it was postponed due to continued disagreements between the blocs over the current electoral law and the electoral commission.

The blocs are yet to reach an understanding on this issue, which could threaten a further delay the elections process.

The KDP and PUK have been engaged in a war of words in the media by blaming the opposite site for the Kurdistan Region’s issues, including issues regarding the Region’s elections and financial woes.

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