Iraq
Hatim al-Tai, spokesperson for the Arab Coalition in Kirkuk, speaks during a press conference on May 23, 2023. Photo: Rudaw/screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Arab and Turkmen parties in Kirkuk on Tuesday accused Kurds of monopolizing the top positions in the city’s electoral body since 2005, adding that it has proved its failure to remain unbiased and conduct transparent elections in previous years.
Representatives of the Arab and Turkmen parties in Kirkuk held a joint press conference, calling for a reshuffling of top positions in the Independent High Electoral Commission’s Kirkuk office, especially the position of the body’s head, prior to the provincial council elections later this year.
“One of the main reasons for this failure is the monopolization of the position of the office’s head since 2005 until now by one ethnic side and one party, despite several people filling the position, they have not been able to be impartial and proved to be biased towards only one ethnicity,” said Hatim al-Tai, spokesperson for the Arab Coalition in Kirkuk, during the presser.
The spokesperson also accused Kurds in the commission of marginalizing other ethnicities and forging votes in previous elections, saying that if the body were to remain in its current form it would cause instability in the city and impact the harmony of its multi-ethnic population.
The parties held a presser in March, accusing the Kurdish component of carrying out demographic change while in charge of the province before 2017. They said they had verified the existence of nearly 300,000 voters in the electoral registry that are from outside of Kirkuk, with some even being from outside of Iraq.
Tai on Tuesday claimed that the topic has been ignored by Iraqi lawmakers and judiciary, calling on Iraq’s top authorities, including the prime minister and parliamentary speaker, to “rectify” the situation and balance out the positions in the commission among the different ethnicities.
The electoral commission’s Kirkuk office responded to the statement from the Arab and Turkmen parties on Wednesday, strongly criticizing their accusations which were made “without presenting any tangible evidence.”
“This statement was written in a charged tone, with incendiary intent, and contained a torrent of untrue accusations,” read the statement from the office, calling on the council of commissioners to take legal measures against the sponsors of the statement.
Iraq’s provincial councils were dissolved in 2019, in response to the demands of the Tishreen protesters who believed the system was a failure and did not achieve anything apart from enabling corruption.
The country is set to reactivate the councils and hold new provincial council elections this year, which would mark the first time the vote has been held since 2013.
Kirkuk is a multi-ethnic city home to Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen. The city was under joint administration before 2014, when Kurds took full control after Iraqi forces withdrew in the face of the Islamic State (ISIS) group. Kurds held the city until October 16, 2017, when Iraqi forces retook control and expelled Kurdish security forces following the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) independence referendum.
Updated at 2:13pm
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