Word: kurdistan
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Although official results won't be due for up to a week, the victory of the two ruling parties in last Saturday's provincial election in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq was never in doubt. The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have run the region in a virtual duopoly since 1991, when the U.S.-patrolled No-Fly Zone helped force Saddam Hussein's military out of the region. However, a new coalition, the Change List, is expected to make gains in the election, with polls showing that it could capture as much as a quarter...
...years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kurdistan has been relatively peaceful compared with the rest of the country, in large part owing to its ruling parties, which began as guerrilla groups fighting Saddam's genocidal campaign against the ethnic Kurdish minority. After Saddam's downfall, the two parties put aside their differences - the KDP is a tribal-style organization dominated by the Barzani family, and the PUK is a socialist-like group run by a party cadre led by Jalal Talabani - to present a united Kurdish front in negotiations with Arab Iraqis and the U.S. over...
However, breaking the duopoly on power by the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan will be difficult. The two main parties are led by two feudal and politically powerful families, the Barzanis and Talabanis, which, along with their extensive security forces, have waged at times violent civil war against each other. Since 2003, however, the two have cooperated to form a coalition that dominates the Kurdish parliament (as well as the Kurdish contingent to the national legislature in Baghdad). They have also split the most prestigious titles between them: Massoud Barzani is president of the KRG; Jalal...
...Talabani-Barzani alliance has been accused of hoarding the money directed to Kurdistan from both outside investment and Baghdad; critics have also charged it with nepotism, alleging that key political and administrative positions have been handed over to kinfolk or party stalwarts; opponents also say that the budget process lacks transparency. "It's these ideas," says Rebwar Karim Mahmood, a political-science professor at Suleimaniya University, "that opposition parties and groups are using to campaign in the elections." This month KRG prime minister Nechirvan Barzani (Massoud's nephew) launched a process to improve government openness. Qubad Talabani (Jalal...
...unprecedented degree, and their strong support at campaign events outside Tehran belies the government claim that opposition demonstrators represent an urban élite out of touch with the pro-Ahmadinejad countryside. But since the election, little has been heard from the provinces, besides reports of clashes in Iranian Kurdistan. The Western press has been restricted to minimal coverage from Tehran, and the Iranian government is keeping a lid on news from other cities. (Read "In Iran, New Demonstrations Bring New Violence...