Roj Bash Kurdistan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani praised Kurdish unity in the Iraqi parliament and said that, while a recently passed election law did not meet all the demands of the Kurds it did address some of the most crucial issues, according to a statement from his office.

“The election law did not fulfill all our demands, but it was a positive step and took into consideration some of the crucial Kurdish demands and no special status was given to Kirkuk,” Barzani said in a statement on the presidency website.

Praising Kurdish unity in the Iraqi parliament over the bill, Barzani emphasized the need for a future census, which would give a clear idea of Iraq’s Kurdish population.

“It’s important that in the future a census be conducted and the principle of partnership be implemented,” Barzani said in the statement.

The Iraqi political parties should not talk to the Kurds with the language of “numbers” and “majority” he told the MPs.

Iraqi lawmakers passed the Iraqi election law to govern the April 2014 parliamentary elections on Monday last week, after months of horse trading and debate between Arabs and Kurds. The main differences had been over distribution of “compensatory seats,” whether the country will be treated as a single or multiple constituencies, Kirkuk and a census.

“To correct those mistakes and undo the injustice, there should have been an investigation to get the true share of provincial seats and there should have been a general census,” Barzani said last month.

The Kurds believe that the previous election law that governed the 2010 elections did not do them justice because it did not reflect their full weight in the polls. Therefore, they demanded the 2005 election law to be used for the upcoming election.

While the new election law did not meet all the Kurdish demands, it increased three seats for Kurdistan’s three provinces. In the 2010 election, Kurdistan got only one “compensatory seat” out of the seven available.

Some Iraqi Arab political parties had demanded a special status for the disputed province of Kirkuk in the election, accusing the Kurds of changing the demographics of the province in their favor, a claim rejected by the Kurds.

Kirkuk has been waiting for the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which calls for a census and a referendum to determine whether the people of Kirkuk want to be incorporated into the autonomous Kurdistan Region or remain under Baghdad’s administration.

"We demand national census to be done in the future, because we cannot call an election clean without a census," said Mahmoud Osman, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament. Baghdad has refused to hold a national census despite constant demands by the Kurds since 2003.

In the meeting with Barzani, Kurdish officials also demanded that a Federation Council law and legislation governing the political parties should be passed by parliament as soon as possible.

"There is a consensus over the political parties’ law, only the voting has remained,” said Osman. “We demand the Federal Council law to be passed, and it is close too,” he added.

The Federation Council is to function as a watchdog over the relation of the federal government with the country’s special regions and governorates.
Comments


0 0 Bakir Lashkari | 19 hours ago
What does all mean, what Mr Massoud Barzani and Iraqi law to the Kurdish region, by including the city of Kirkuk and other Kurdish territories outside the control of the KRG administration? To be honest to you, even what is Barzani is trying to say, it very cryptically what the real issues and breakpoints are? How could you expect from the Kurds in the region and in the rest of Iraq to vote for the Kurdish vital and crucial points, which all the Kurds should realize what they vote for? Can any explain us about the following questions: 1. What is agreed about the article 140, as this article is since 2003 still under discussion between Arbil & Bagdad? 2. How many seats are agreed for the total in the Iraqi parliament for the upcoming election? 3. Is it possible for the Kurds to run the election with some political parties, other than the Kurds, to the duellist? 4. Who is going to be the President of Iraq by the next election? 5. Why it is not possible for the Kurds to sell its own oil & gas and pay the royalties every year a sum amount of the money to contribute to the Central Baghdad Administration? Rather than the other way around, so the Kurds can control its own natural resources! 6. Are there any special agreements among the Kurdistan Parties based on the unity, who are going to join the Iraqi Parliamentary election for 2014? What are the principles? 7. If the Kurds would not take part in the upcoming coalition government, can the Kurds take the opposition side and what will be the effects on the power sharing and disputed issues and matters, Like Kirkuk and budget percentages of the KRG budget sharing?
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0 0 Efir | 13 hours ago
This racists chauvinists wanted to gave Kurds ,Arabs and Turkomans the same seats in Kerkuk even tough Kerkuk has a Kurdish majority. Whys. But Barz the arab parties not also gave Kurds in Ninawa and Diyala the same rights? But Barzani said claearly that he will not allow such a law and will boycott the elections if they not remove it, but they removed this dirty law.