Female Kurdish deputies are pictured outside the Kurdistan parliament building in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on November 6, 2013. (AFP PHOTO/SAFIN HAMED)
Erbil, Asharq Al-Awsat—Sixteen Kurdish political blocs and parties from Kirkuk, 150 miles (235 kilometers) north of Baghdad, said they would stand for the forthcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections on the same electoral list, a Kurdish source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
In an official statement, the newly allied parties, calling themselves the “Kurdistan Kirkuk List,” said they agreed to contest the next parliamentary elections in Iraq slated for April 30, 2014, “on the same electoral list, which has the same program.”
The statement continued: “The list will have a uniform symbol, namely the flag of Kurdistan and Kirkuk Citadel.”
Speaking exclusively to Asharq Al-Awsat, a spokesman for the electoral list, Adnan Kirkuki, said that the idea of forging the alliance came “according to the requirements of the Kurdish people in Kirkuk, given that they share one national cause, namely that of the land.”
Kirkuki said that there have been “public calls for all Kurdish parties in Iraq and Kurdistan and the political lists to participate in the Iraqi parliamentary elections on the same electoral list in order to ensure they gain as many votes as possible from Kurds in Kirkuk.”
He added that the parties have taken the decision so that Kurds do not “lose their right to parliamentary representation,” citing previous elections when Kurdish parties were on separate lists.
“The door is open for all Kurdish and non-Kurdish parties [to participate], including Turkmen, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Arab parties operating in Kirkuk regardless of their political, ideological and religious loyalties,” he said.
According to Kirkuki, the Kurdistan Kirkuk List has formed a special committee to “meet with the Iraqi Islamic Party in order to discuss with its members mechanisms for participation in the list.”
He said: “The list will have a unified program that is aimed at advancing the city of Kirkuk and preserving its national mosaic and the brotherly and peaceful spirit of coexistence.”
Kirkuki added that another committee has been formed to “broach the topic of participation with the Iraqi Communist Party,” adding that the “Kurdistan Communist Party is also one of the participants in the Kurdistan Kirkuk List.”