Iraqi Kurdistan polls

Viewpoints: Iraqi Kurdistan polls


The three provinces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region will elect a president and parliament on Saturday, amid a land dispute with Baghdad over oil-rich Kirkuk, and tensions over oil exports.

The two power-sharing Kurdish parties - the KDP and the PUK - are facing a new reformist party, Change, which hopes to break their stranglehold on power. Five voters discuss what's importaOf course I will vote for [incumbent] Massud Barzani for president. I won't say who I will vote for in the parliament.

Barzani was a fighter when he was a teenager, he is dedicated to his cause. He's a well-known figure, not only locally but internationally.

Not everything is perfect, but compared to the situation before 1991, a lot has been achieved. We are free, there is no oppression, there is good security. There are better roads. Before '91, we had just half a university in the whole Kurdistan Regional Government region, now we have more than 10.

The biggest task facing the KRG is the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution (a referendum on whether Kurdish areas of Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah ad Din and Ninawa provinces should become part of Iraqi Kurdistan). This would bring the 60% of purely Kurdish areas not run by the KRG: Kirkuk, Mosul, Diyala, under its control.

The issue of corruption should be tackled, this is a big problem. As I said, not everything is perfect, but that does not mean that we should destroy our unity. The two key parties are now very united, without unity we lose everything.
Return nt to them in the forthcoming poll.