Kurds to go to polls to elect leader

 

Azzaman, April 30, 2005

 

Iraqi Kurds will hold separate elections to choose a president for their self-rule region, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said.

 

Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said the elections for the president will be part of the parliamentary vote expected to take place once the regional Kurdish governments merge.

 

The region is administered by two governments, one in Sulaimaniya, where Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan holds power and the other in Arbil, a territory run by Barzani’s KDP.

 

With Talabani elected the President of Iraq, observers believed the presidency of the Kurdish region will automatically go to Barzani.

 

But Barzani, in his latest interview with the newspaper, showed little interest in becoming the first leader of a unified Kurdish autonomous region.

 

He said he wanted to be part of the Kurdish peshmerga or militias. “This is the highest and holiest post for me,” he said.

 

The regional Kurdish parliaments currently convene together under the same roof in Arbil.

 

Negotiations are underway to merge the governments of Arbil and Sulaimaniya.

 

Barzani said the parliament, currently in recession, is expected to elect a unified government for the whole region once it convenes in a few weeks.

 

“Then (we will) embark on other unification steps which I hope will be implemented without hurdles,” Barzani said.