Opposition in Iraqi Kurdistan Questions Population Figures
Population growth and density have become a hot topic among the Iraqi Kurdistan Region's opposition parties, as changing figures will inevitably affect election outcomes.
In the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the Kurdish opposition — specifically the Movement for Change — is questioning the recent population increase, abnormal compared with that at the time of the parliamentary elections in 2009 in the region and in 2010 in Iraq.
The Movement for Change led by Mustafa Nushirwan, which split from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 2008, is suspicious about the fact that this increase took place in Erbil and Dahuk, cities that are ruled by Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
The three opposition forces — the Movement for Change, the Islamic Group in Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Islamic Union — won 35 out of 111 seats in the Kurdish parliament during the 2009 elections. The seats of these forces were divided as follows: The Movement for Change received 25, the Islamic Group four and the Islamic Union six. Meanwhile, the Kurdistan List has 59 seats and includes the two ruling parties in the region, the KDP and PUK.
On June 9, the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament presented a memorandum to the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) in Iraq to shed some light on the population increase in the region before the Kurdish elections.
