New government in 'conflicted' Kirkuk amid divisions heading for elimination

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[size=52]New government in 'conflicted' Kirkuk amid divisions heading for elimination[/size]

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2024-08-11
More than eight months after the Kirkuk Provincial Council elections, Ribwar Taha was elected governor on Saturday evening for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Ibrahim Muhammad al-Hafez, on behalf of the Arab component, was elected head of the local council.[/size]
[size=45]Kirkuk is one of the most politically complex and ethnically diverse provinces in Iraq. The city is known for its population diversity, with several ethnicities coexisting there, most notably Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen, in addition to a Christian minority. This population diversity is clearly reflected in the political scene and has made local elections a very complex and sensitive process.[/size]
[size=45]The province also enjoys a strategic location and huge oil wealth, which makes it the focus of attention of local and regional political forces. The province was and still is a subject of dispute between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region, and is considered one of the most prominent areas of conflict, and these tensions reflect themselves in every local election process, where the priorities and positions of different nationalities differ on issues of management and control of resources.[/size]
[size=45]In previous years, attempts to hold local elections in Kirkuk faltered, before the scope of a political agreement included the governorate in the council elections on December 18, 2023, which led to the election of 16 members, with Arabs with 6 seats, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan with 5 seats, the Kurdistan Democratic Party with 2 seats, and the Turkmen with 2 seats as well, while a quota seat went to Christians.[/size]
[size=45]Following the elections, the political forces failed to name the governor and the head of the council, which prompted Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to adopt a political initiative that led to meetings in Baghdad that ended with the selection of the local cabinet, but with the boycott of major blocs, a step that will increase the complexity in the tense province.[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad meeting[/size]
[size=45]The governor's election took place on Saturday evening at a meeting at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad, attended by five members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, along with a member of the Babylon Bloc, bringing the total to six members. Hours earlier, members of the Arab Bloc had announced their boycott of the council session, but three Arab members, Raad al-Saleh of the Progress Bloc, Ibrahim Mohammed Hafez of the Sovereignty Bloc, and Dhaher al-Asi, joined, bringing the total to nine. The meeting was held in the absence of members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (two members), the Turkmen Front (two members), and three other Arab members, Rakan al-Jabouri, Ahmed al-Hamdani, and Salwa al-Mufarji.[/size]
[size=45]Rebwar Taha was voted as Kirkuk governor with six votes, the same votes that Ibrahim Mohammed Hafez received for the position of council president, making this council the second of its kind after 2005.[/size]
[size=45]Position rotation[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said that there was an agreement between the components of Kirkuk to rotate the position of governor and share power, in a move to prevent the dissolution of the provincial council.[/size]
[size=45]Torhan Al-Mufti said, “The components of Kirkuk and the political blocs that won the provincial council elections have agreed to form a joint consensus government between all components,” indicating that “the position of governor will rotate among the winning blocs.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed that "the Prime Minister adopts a neutral position and positions are distributed according to merits, without imposing decisions from Baghdad."[/size]
[size=45]First position of the governor[/size]
[size=45]In his first statement after his election, the new governor of Kirkuk, Rebwar Taha, announced the beginning of a new phase in Kirkuk that focuses on promoting peace, harmony and reconstruction.[/size]
[size=45]Taha, a leader in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, stressed that the priorities will include enhancing security, improving services, and rehabilitating infrastructure, while paying attention to all sectors and activating the rich resources that Kirkuk enjoys in order to improve the lives of citizens.[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that his position would be a tool for achieving political and social peace and enhancing coexistence among all components of Kirkuk, stressing that he would be a governor for the Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and all segments of society.[/size]
[size=45]The Democrats respond, the Turkmen resort to the judiciary, and the Arabs refuse[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party bloc, Hassan Majeed, confirmed that the bloc had not received any official invitation to hold a meeting of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, whether in Kirkuk or in Baghdad.[/size]
[size=45]He added that there are legal and administrative procedures through which work is carried out and members are informed of the date and place of the meeting, but this did not happen.[/size]
[size=45]In contrast, the spokesman for the Turkmen Front, Muhammad Semaan, announced that “the Turkmen will resort to the judiciary to challenge the council session that was held without their participation or agreement.” He added: “We will challenge the mechanisms of the session and what happened during it, and the judiciary will be the arbiter of that.”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, a statement issued by the Arab group in the Kirkuk Provincial Council stated that “the members of the Arab group in the Kirkuk Provincial Council reject any session of the Provincial Council that does not meet the legal conditions contained in Article 13 of the Provincial Council Elections Law, which stipulates that the local government in Kirkuk be formed with the agreement and participation of all the winning blocs from the components of the province, and the decision of the Provincial Council voted on by all its members in the first session of the council, which stipulated the agreement of all components before forming the government before holding any session.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed that "any member who violates this agreement will be considered to have broken his covenants with the members of the Arab group and the masses who elected him, and the votes of the masses who brought him to the position of responsibility to defend the Arab component will be confiscated."[/size]
[size=45]Elections in Kirkuk are often more complicated than in other Iraqi provinces. This complexity is due to several factors, including the diverse demographics that pose challenges to any electoral process. Kurdish parties are working to assert their strong presence in the city, while Arabs and Turkmen are working to secure their representation in the local authority presidency.[/size]
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