The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two ruling parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, announced on Wednesday that it has formed an alliance with a dozen political parties for the upcoming Iraq provincial elections.
Notably absent from this alliance is the other ruling force in the region, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has recently been a subject of dispute with the PUK.
In an effort to safeguard Kurdish interests amidst the region’s unstable political climate, 13 political parties released a joint statement declaring their intention to enter the local elections with an inclusive Kurdish list. The electoral alliance aims to secure a majority by coming together to represent the interests of the Kurdish people.
Among the parties included in the alliance are the Gorran Movement, the pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Tavgari Azadi, also known as the Kurdistan Free Society Movement, and the Islamist Kurdistan Justice Group (Komala).
In a press release after meetings with the Gorran Movement and the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party on Monday, the chair of the PUK Election Office, Rizgar Hama, indicated the party’s willingness to cooperate with the Kurdish parties in the provincial elections following discussions.
Hama emphasised that if Kurdish parties unite in the disputed territories of northern Iraq in the provincial elections, these regions can assert their Kurdish identity once again. The PUK official stated that the party’s objective is for Arab political parties to no longer benefit from the divisions among the Kurds.
The disputed territories are the regions that have been historically claimed by both the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad. These territories are areas that were Arabised during the rule of the Baath Party, as defined by the Constitution of Iraq. These regions are primarily inhabited by non-Arab ethnic groups; Kurds, Assyrians, Yazidis, Turkmens, and Shabaks.
The provincial elections, scheduled for 18 December, will mark Iraq’s first local elections in a decade after 2013 votes. The elections, originally set for 2018, were postponed due to disagreements between political parties and the massive protests that persisted from 2019 to 2021.
The provincial vote will be held in federal Iraq and will not encompass the provinces in the Kurdistan Region.
