SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) on Tuesday called on rival and opposition parties to be united in Iraq’s provincial elections.
Iraq’s provincial elections are scheduled for Dec. 18, the country’s first local vote in a decade.
The PUK, which is the second-largest party in the Kurdistan Region, has intensified its efforts, calling on Kurdish parties to partake in the provincial elections within a single electoral list.
The Kurdistan Region is excluded to participate in the provincial elections, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said, citing “technical reasons”.
Kurdish parties seek to maintain votes and lists in the disputed areas between the Kurdish and Iraqi authorities, especially in the oil-rich disputed Kirkuk province.
“Kurds need unity in the disputed territories in order to not face failure before other components during the election,” Rzgar Haji Hama, a member of the PUK politburo said, following a meeting with the Kurdistan Toilers Party.
“It’s a fateful election,” he stressed.
“We have always called for putting aside our inter-party problems in the Region but let’s be united in Kirkuk,” he said.
“United we stand divided we fall,” he added.
