Kirkuk – Iraq's parliament on March 27 approved a new election law, which will include general legislative elections and provincial council elections (local elections), an amendment to the 2018 election law.

The most prominent agreement between the political parties in parliament was the holding of local elections in Kirkuk province (northern Iraq), where no local elections have been held since 2005 due to political problems between the components of the province, which includes a mixture of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds and other minorities.

Many questions are raised about the mechanism approved by Parliament for holding local elections in Kirkuk, the number of seats in its council and the position of the components of the province on the new law, which will be answered by the following lines:


What is the peculiarity of Kirkuk?

Kirkuk is 298 kilometers north of Baghdad, and the province has a population of about 1.6 million according to the latest official statistics, and includes a population mix of various Iraqi components, including minorities.

Kirkuk is special among the Iraqi provinces, as it is one of the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil according to Article 140 of the constitution approved in 2005, in addition to that it includes 6 giant oil fields with reserves estimated at about 13 billion barrels.

Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kurdish forces (Peshmerga) have taken control of the city center of Kirkuk, but the law enforcement operations launched by the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in October 2017 after the referendum on the secession of the Kurdistan region from Iraq - have shifted security control in the province to Iraqi army forces as Peshmerga forces withdraw from the city center.

Kirkuk includes 6 oil fields with reserves estimated at 13 billion barrels (Reuters)

What is the status of Kirkuk in the new law?

The new amended election law stipulates that local elections in governorates that are not organized in the region should not be held on December 20, which applies to Kirkuk governorate.

Since 2003, Iraq has witnessed the holding of 3 local elections in Iraq, the first in 2005, followed by the elections in 2009, and then the elections in 2013, but the province of Kirkuk witnessed only one electoral cycle, which was held in 2005.

The new election law stipulates – in Article 15 (II-A) – that provincial councils consist of 12 seats, in addition to one seat per 200,2019 people, for governorates with a population of more than one million people, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce for 15, and then the number of members of the next Kirkuk Provincial Council will be 1 seats, relative to its population of 6.<> million people.

The law also devotes a special article related to the Kirkuk elections, which stipulates that the Electoral Commission shall work to check the voter register in coordination with the ministries of interior, health, justice, planning, and trade, provided that the voter register in Kirkuk is based on the 1957 census, and guarantees the right to vote for those deported from the province who have exceeded the procedures of the fact-finding committee regarding Article 140 of the constitution for the disputed areas.

The 1957 census – which dates back to the monarchy in Iraq – was adopted as the Federal Ministry of Planning as the population reference for Iraq, considering that there was no displacement or displacement of population blocks from one region to another in Iraq.

The professor of political science at the "University of Jihan" Muhannad Janabi – in his speech to Al Jazeera Net – that the legislation of the provincial councils law and its inclusion of Kirkuk shows that there is a solution to the problems between Baghdad and Erbil, especially since Kirkuk is one of the disputed areas.

The political agreement that led to the formation of the State Administration Alliance and the formation of the government of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani last October led to an agreement to hold elections in Kirkuk, he said, noting that the adoption of the voter register in Kirkuk on the 1957 census and official population statistics is a good indicator for displaced people from the province, he said.

New Election Law Requires Voter Registry Audit in Kirkuk and 1957 Census Adoption (Iraqi Press)

What is the Arab position?

Mahmoud Zidan al-Obeidi, a leader of the Arab Project Party in the province (led by Sunni politician Khamis al-Khanjar), said that Kirkuk province has been severely aggrieved, leading to an unstable administrative situation since 2005, especially since after the provincial council's term ended in 2009, no local elections were held.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Al-Obaidi continues that the failure to solve the outstanding political problems in the province led to the failure to hold elections, indicating that reaching a political agreement between the components of Kirkuk on the election law, which was recently approved came as a result of the political agreement between all Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish components.

As for whether the provincial council elections in Kirkuk will actually be held, he explained that the voter register was the biggest problem that hindered the holding of all local electoral cycles previously, explaining that the voter register in Kirkuk is inaccurate, and therefore it must be addressed and audited, and then start holding local elections, which will require real and clear political will, according to him.

What is the Turkmen position?

On the other hand, Hassan Turan, head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Kirkuk, said that 2018 saw the consensus of all components of Kirkuk to hold local elections in 2019, but representatives of the Kurdish component filed an appeal with the Federal Court about invalidating the voter register audit at the time.

On his party's position on the new law, he explained – in his speech to Al Jazeera Net – that they are with the holding of local elections in the province, but he pointed out that the Kurdish component fears any step to check the voter register, attributing this to the additions that he described as "enormous" brought about by the Kurds in Kirkuk after 2003, expressing his hope that there are serious steps to complete the audit of the voter register in order to hold elections.

"The Federal Ministry of Trade confirmed the presence of 300,<> people registered in the voter register of Kirkuk province, although they are not from the province in the first place, and therefore, the priorities of these must be checked, which will be subject to political will," Turan added.

Political blocs question the ability of the electoral commission to check the voter register in Kirkuk ahead of local elections (Al Jazeera)

What is the Kurdish position?

Turning to the Kurds, Mohammed Kamal, head of the third branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Kirkuk, said that Kurdish parties support holding local elections in the province, especially since the province has been subjected to injustice as a result of postponing the elections for previous sessions.

Regarding the most important items on which the Kurds agreed with the rest of the components, Kamal added that everyone agreed to check the voter records in the province, noting that the pretext of the records was an argument invoked by the rest of the components in order to postpone the elections in each electoral cycle, and it was possible to work on checking the voter register years ago, according to him.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Kamal believes that it is very difficult to check voter records in Kirkuk, especially since there are only a few months left for the local elections, pointing out that "the political situation in Kirkuk faces obstacles, there are difficulties in checking voter records, and the forces of the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization are present in Kirkuk, which is obstructive to the conduct of elections."