Proceso de Mejora

The Kurdistan region is located in the north of Iraq – it is a part of the federal state. This autonomous region emerged when the Ba’athist regime withdrew its army and governmental administrative organs from the three Kurdish governorates in the aftermath of the popular uprising of the Kurdish people in 1991 (Stansfield, 2003, p.121; Cheterian, 2013). Hence, the Kurdish political parties represented in the Kurdistan Front 16 developed to overcome the political and administrative vacuum that occurred because of the withdrawal, as a result new legislative and executive organs and institutions emerged in the region. Accordingly, the Kurdistan Front established a committee responsible for making the necessary procedures to hold elections. To illustrate this further, on 19 May 1992 the first free election was held in the three Kurdish governorates whereby a parliament was established, which resulted in the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in July of the same year (Kurdistan Parliament, 2013; Romano, 2006, p.208-209; Stansfield, 2003, p.121). Although the KRG formally governs the three provinces of Erbil, the political capital city of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Sulaymaniyah, the cultural capital, and Dhok, it has power over the other Kurdish cities located outside its administration. For example, to an extent, it has power in Kirkuk, Mexmur, Xaneqîn and elsewhere as these are considered “disputed areas” between the KRG and the federal government in Baghdad. Besides, the Kurdistan region’s draft constitution describes and determines the Kurdish territory in Iraq as follows:

The Iraqi Kurdistan Region is a geographical historical entity consisting of Dhok governorate with its existing administrative borders, Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyh, Erbil, and districts of Aqrah, Shaikhan, Sinjar, Talkaif, Qaraqush, and township of Zamar, Ba’asheeqa, and Aski Kalak from Nineveh province, districts of Khanaqeen and Mandali from Diyala province with its administrative border before 1968 (Kurdistan Parliament, 2009, p.2).

16 -Kurdistan Front made up of the KDP, PUK and three smaller parties founded in 1987 (see McDowall, 2005, p.23).

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Furthermore, according to the Kurdistan region’s constitution draft, approved by the Kurdish parliament on 24 June 2009 and awaiting a referendum for it to be in effect, the political system in the region is a democratic republic and parliamentary, as such:

The Iraqi Kurdistan Region is a region within the Federal State of Iraq. It is a democratic republic with a parliamentary political system that is based on political pluralism, the principle of separation of powers, and the peaceful transfer of power through direct, general and periodic elections that use a secret ballot (Kurdistan Parliament, 2009, p.2).

In the last two decades, since the emergence of the Kurdish autonomous region in 1991, four parliamentary elections have been held. The first election, held in May 1992, resulted in the PUK and the KDP equally winning the vast majority of seats. These two parties then formed a coalition government in July 1992 when they began ruling the region; however, civil war broke out between these two ruling parties in 1994, this disrupted the executive, legislative and all other administrative organs in the region. The civil war, which ended in 1997, painfully affected the new self-governing Kurdish region by causing major setbacks to all aspects of life (Rubin, 2008; Cockburn, 1996).

According to the International Crisis Group (2010), the Kurdish regional government, from its foundation in 1992 until 2005, was a semi-authoritarian system, which permitted only a certain amount of freedom of speech. Only with the Iraqi Kurdistan legislative elections of 2005 for parliament, which were held to coincide with the second parliamentary election of Iraq (held in 2005) and in the aftermath of the removal of the Ba’athist regime, did the situation improve allowing more freedom of speech. This election, which coincided with the parliamentary and provincial elections in Iraq on 30 January 2005, resulted in the Alliance of Kurdistan, consisting of the PUK and the KDP, with 104 seats of the 111 seats in parliament.

The most important election, however, was the parliamentary election that was held on 25 July 2009 in the Kurdistan region, whereby for the first time real and strong opposition parties competed with the classic ruling parties in the region. As a result, new opposition powers in the Kurdistan region emerged, including the Change Movement (CM), which won 25 seats in parliament. This led to the emergence of new voices in the Kurdish parliament, calling for more reforms and transparency. Additionally, new opposition media outlets were established which began to criticise the two dominant parties (the PUK and the KDP) for their shortcomings by revealing

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corruption and calling for more democracy and transparency. This election in July 2009 can, to some extent, be considered as the starting point of a better democracy in the Kurdistan region (International Crisis Group, 2010).

Furthermore, the fourth parliamentary elections were held on 21 September 2013. This time the elections resulted in the retreat of the PUK as one of the two main and classic ruling parties as they fell to third place with only 18 seats (loosing 11 seats). In contrast, the CM won 24 seats and became second to the KDP, which remained in first place with 38 parliamentary seats. Three Islamic parties also made their way into parliament by obtaining 17 seats, including the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) – 10 seats, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) – six seats, and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (KIM) – one seat (BBC, 2013b).

The diverse political structure of the Kurdish parliament reflects the increasing desire of the Kurdish people for reform in their fight against corruption; thus, reflecting that the power balance is now changing.