ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – According to initial results released by the election commission, the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is leading by 52 percent in Saturday’s legislative elections in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, with the Change Movement (Gorran) trailing in second place.

According to the early count the KDP won the majority of votes in both Duhok and Erbil provinces, while Gorran was in second place in Erbil and Sulaimani, so far claiming 17.7 percent of the votes.

Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani, who is also the leader of the KDP, congratulated the people of Kurdistan on the successful elections and asked all political groups to honor the outcome of the polls.

The president called yesterday’s elections “a great achievement for our people,” and urged people to stop the celebratory fire that has been heard in Erbil and other cities for his party’s victory.

Meanwhile, Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa called on the people of Kurdistan to “preserve the peace and treat each other with a spirit of brotherhood.”

“We are all winners and we should work together for a better and prosperous Kurdistan,” he told his party TV.

Aram Sheikh Muhammad, Gorran’s election commissioner, told Rudaw that his group has won the majority of votes in Sulaimani’s 501 polling stations.

Gorran, which broke away from the PUK in 2009 and won 25 seats in the Kurdish parliament in elections that same year, surprised friends and foes alike by outvoting all other parties in the smaller cities such as Kalar and Ranya in Saturday’s polls.

Even in Halabja, a city that has been historically known for its support for Islamic groups, Gorran overtook the Islamic Union.

Voter turnout was recorded at 79 percent, which the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said, “Reflects the people’s understanding of democracy.”

“The high turnout in itself encouraged the political groups to respect people’s will and act with civility,” said Barzani. “The uneventful elections displayed a good image of our democracy to the world,” he added.

Barzani urged all parties to “act upon the people’s goodwill with good politics.” He added that, “Soon after the final results have come out we should form a new government that the people of Kurdistan will deserve.”

It is likely that the KDP, which has run the Kurdistan Regional Government in coalition with its partner the PUK, may now find itself closer to the victorious Gorran.

Gorran leaders have, meanwhile, shown their intention to join the next government, ending the opposition role they acquired after the 2009 polls.

But on Saturday, a well-placed source within the KDP told Rudaw that the KDP reassures the PUK that “whatever the outcome of the elections, their strategic agreement will hold.”

Foreign diplomats in Erbil, among them consul generals from Jordan, Iran and Turkey praised the high turnout of yesterday’s elections and stressed their countries’ support for the Kurdish government.

Seyd Azim Husseini, Iran’s consul general in Erbil, said that his country respects the will of the Kurdish people and that the outcome of the polls would not affect Tehran-Erbil relations.

“We will try to keep our relations with everyone and we try not to take anyone’s side,” he told Rudaw. “We believe the understating of the people of Iraq is such that they can decide their own affairs and we will respect that,” he added.


RUDAW