Erbil will decide upcoming parliament election: Change official

Kurdpress – 5.9.2013 – The Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil will decide the fate of the region’s upcoming parliament election, Yusuf Mohammad, a senior official of main opposition Change Movement said.

Speaking exclusively to Asharq Al-Awsat, Mohamed said: “Gorran (Change in Kurdish) is currently exerting all of its efforts to strengthen its election campaign in Erbil province, particularly as the movement has secured a strong position in Sulaymaniya. The vote in Erbil will decide the next elections.”

“The election results in Dohuk and Erbil provinces will surprise everybody,” Yusuf Mohamed said. Mohamed further confirmed that the Kurdistan Region capital will be a key battleground, saying “everybody needs to win there.”  “Barzani’s party is trying to affirm its influence in [Erbil], while the PUK (co-ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) is seeking to restore its popularity there and Gorran is also trying to strengthen its presence in the region.”

The KRG’s legislative and provincial elections are scheduled to take place on September 21. The PUK and other co-ruling, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), had contested the 2005 and 2009 elections as part of a coalition. This was a result of the so-called “strategic agreement” between the two parties signed in July 2007, which itself was based on the 1998 Washington Agreement. However Kurdistan’s ruling parties are set to run the forthcoming elections on separate lists, potentially opening up the scene to political parties that have remained firmly on the sidelines over the past 8 years.