Kurdish Leaders Threaten Iraq Election Boycott

More Doubts Over January Iraq Vote

Adding to the ever growing series of problems with January’s parliamentary vote in Iraq, Kurdish political leaders are suggesting the entire region could boycott the election unless alterations are made.

Since the 2003 US occupation, Iraq’s political system has been anything but simple. The idea of “one man one vote” is completely foreign to this system, with various amounts of seats set aside for assorted religious and ethnic minority factions.

The Kurdish officials are outraged by the law, as it stands, because they are unhappy with the current way the seats are divided, saying it is unfair to the Kurdish dominated north.

The Kurds aren’t the only ones angry with the partition of seats, as Sunni Vice President Hashemi was complaining earlier this week that the law totally ignores overseas refugees, essentially giving 2 million+ refugees (mostly Sunnis) no representation. He is threatening to veto the law.

Iraq’s elections were initially scheduled for January 15, but the delays in getting the current law passed have already pushed it back to January 21. Between the Kurdish and Sunni opposition, it seems that further changes will have to be made, threatening to delay the election even further.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.