Despite the various proposals regarding the formation of the local government in Kirkuk for more than four months, things are still stalled, even after Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani took over the file.
After Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani returned from Washington and talked about resuming negotiations, Kirkuk Provincial Council member Hassan Majeed affirmed on Tuesday that the deadlock continues to plague Kirkuk negotiations regarding completing the formation of the province’s administration, noting the absence of specific individuals nominated for the position of the next governor.
The Arabs and Kurds insist on securing the governor’s position, while the Turkmen (the least populous component) demand a power-sharing formula for the position, distributed among all parties.
Majeed stated in a statement monitored by “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed,” “Dialogues between the political blocs that won in the Kirkuk Provincial Council elections have been suspended since the last meeting held with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and there is no specific new date set for a meeting of the political blocs.”
He emphasized, “The suspension of dialogues between the blocs has halted the process of forming Kirkuk administration to appoint the governor of Kirkuk, and there are no specific figures to be named for the governor’s position.”
He added that “the Kurds have a negotiating committee in Baghdad working with the rest of the blocs, including the Arabs and Turkmen, to impose reaching a consensus formula that satisfies all parties for the purpose of forming Kirkuk administration and its council.”
The Independent High Electoral Commission announced on December 28, 2023, the final results of the Kirkuk Provincial Council elections, which consisted of 16 seats. The Kirkuk Our Strength and Will Alliance (the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) won 157,649 votes for five seats, the Arab Alliance in Kirkuk won 102,558 votes for three seats, and the Unified Iraqi Turkmen Front won 75,169 votes for two seats. The Leadership Alliance (Arabs) won 61,612 votes for two seats, the Kurdistan Democratic Party won 52,278 votes for two seats, and the Arabism Alliance won 47,919 votes for one seat, as well as one seat for the Components quota.
Kirkuk Acting Governor Rakan Saeed al-Jubouri had called on the winners of the Kirkuk Provincial Council membership on January 30 last year to hold the council’s first meeting. However, disputes between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union, and the Kurds’ disputes with the Arab and Turkmen components, prevented an agreement to hold the first session and select the local government head of the province.
According to the law on the elections of provincial councils, it is obligatory to hold the first session within 15 days from the date of approval of the final election results. The first session of the provincial council is chaired by the oldest council member, which is Bruin Fatah from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
In the first session of the provincial council, the council’s president and deputy must be elected by a majority of the council’s votes (50+1), meaning that the winner must receive nine votes from Kirkuk Provincial Council members. However, there is no legal clause specifying the period during which the council can leave its session open if the positions are not settled in the first session.
Despite more than four months passing since the announcement of the final results of the provincial council elections, Kirkuk still lacks a local administration to manage the province’s affairs, which remains unstable security-wise, as pockets and cells of ISIS continue to exist in the province’s valleys and lands, occasionally carrying out operations targeting security forces. Additionally, Kirkuk remains a political knot for Kurdish parties, as well as Turkmen and Arab Shiite and Sunni parties.
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