Catalyst for Change in Iraq?

A huge turnout—almost 80 percent of Kurdistan’s 2.5 million registered voters came to make their voices heard and their votes count. The turnout was so high that polling stations remained opened for an hour longer. It’s the first time that Kurdistan, an autonomous region of northern Iraq, has gone to the polls to bridge the “democracy gap” and directly choose its president and its parliament.

The Iraqi Kurdistan region has been dominated for decades by two parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). While they’re secular and pro-American, they’ve never been very democratic. For example, the two parties decided to run in this election on the same ticket, analogous to Democrats and Republicans deciding to run together to make sure all the incumbents win. But in one part of the region, a strong opposition has emerged, calling itself simply Change or Goran in Kurdish. In the Kurdish city of Sulimaniya, young supporters of the Change Party have been filling the streets late at night, sometimes stopping traffic with their enthusiasm. The movement is led by a few dissident members of the PUK, which has always dominated this Kurdish city.

It’s not clear if support for the Change Party is much of a threat in the more conservative areas of the north controlled by the KDP. But in Sulimaniya, the PUK is clearly worried about a large protest vote. The deputy foreign minister of Iraq, Barham Salih, is the PUK’s leading candidate in the Kurdish elections and with the Change Party breathing down his neck, Salih has been breaking new ground.

Salih says it’s been a new experience for him and for the people he meets going door to door; they ask him for favors and jobs. But that’s part of the old system he wants to change. Salih has a clean reputation, despite being part of a Kurdish establishment critics say is riddled with corruption. This election is his best chance, he says, to make reforms in Kurdistan.

Kurdish citizens admit they’re happy to see a real electoral contest, which for the first time includes a businessman, Farhad Aladin. A transformation in Kurdish politics is palpable. If anything, this election has forced the two parties to come up with much better and far more qualified candidates.

Published Date: August 04, 2009