Around 25 Kurds win in Danish local elections

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Around 25 Kurds from different political parties have won in the Tuesday local elections in Denmark, according to a Rudaw reporter in Europe.

The vote was a major failure for Denmark’s ruling Social Democratic Party, whose votes downed from 28 percent to 23 compared to the last municipal polls. 

Among the 25 winning Kurdish candidates are Roza Sulaiman and Araz Khan, who hail from the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) and Duhok province’s Zakho city, respectively. The rest are originally from Turkey.  

The list of the Kurds who won in the Danish local elections also includes: Comert Sonsuz, Dogan Polat, Erdal Colak, Esat Senturk, Necla Baran, Selim Baran, Feti Baran, Firat Sari, Ibrahim Benli, Gul Ozcan, Hediye Temiz, Huseyin Arac, Mehmet Zeki Dogru, Metin Deniz, Murat Kutuk, Musa Harmanci, Mustafa Aslan, Resul Kucukakin, Sami Deniz, Serdal Benli, Taner Genc, Yavuz Sari, and Ozgen Yucel 

“You have given me 1361 personal votes, and thus I have been re-elected to Aalborg City Council,” said Sulaimani in a Facebook post. “I am humbled and grateful for the overwhelming support, and I promise to work at least as hard for the next 4 years.”

Khan took to Facebook, thanking those who voted for him. 

“Thank you to all the volunteers who have spent evenings, weekends and days off fighting for our cause, you are the soul of the entire project,” he said. 

Social Democrats’ biggest defeat was in Copenhagen, losing control of the city for the first time in more than 100 years.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has acknowledged her Social Democratic Party’s decline, describing the loss as “greater than we had expected,” the Guardian reported.