KRI Elections: Key players and alliances
Francesca Maria Lorenzini | Oct. 14, 2024
Ahead of long-delayed elections in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), dissident parties and politicians are rallying to challenge the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)'s long-standing dominance.
After more than thirty years in power, the two rival ruling parties are grappling with severe political and economic crises.
With millions of public servants unpaid for months, public frustration is reaching a boiling point, creating a ripe opportunity for opposition forces to seize the moment.
Coalitions, also referred to as blocs, play a key role alliances between parties with common interests are utilized to prop up organizations with small numbers and electoral asymmetry against what they might identify as common opponents, like the KDP or PUK — or both.
Assyrian presence
Though all parties in the Athra Alliance are boycotting these elections, it was formed in 2022 as a political coalition representing the Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian people in Iraq.
The coalition was originally composed of five parties: the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM, or Zowaa), Assyrian Patriotic Party, Beth Nahrin Patriotic Union, Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council and Abnaa al-Nahrain (also known as the Sons of Mesopotamia). With the March 2024 merger of the ADM and Abnaa al-Nahrain, the Athra Alliance is now made up of four parties.
“The decision of our national parties to ally together came as a result of keenness to defend the interests of our people and their just and legitimate rights in the homeland,” the 2023 press release announcing the new alliance said. It also cited “challenges threatening the existence of our Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people, due to exclusion and marginalization, monopolization of power, the absence of social justice, the weakness of the law, and the power of non-state forces.”
Other Christian-identifying parties include the Babylon Movement
Kurdistan24 reports 39 candidates have registered for the quota seats, citing Imad Jamil, head of the press at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC)
Islamic parties
The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and Kurdistan Justice Party (KJP), constitute another opposition front in the KRI.
In the 2018 elections, the Islamic parties together secured 12 percent of the vote, with KJP winning seven seats and KIU five.
Their role as challengers to the KDP and PUK grew more prominent after 2009, when the Gorran Movement was founded and quickly emerged as a leading opposition force in the region. But they have consistently failed to exceed 15 percent of the vote.
The Gorran Movement
The Gorran Movement was founded in 2009 by influential PUK politician Nawshirwan Mustafa, who got frustrated by widespread tribalism and corruption within the party.
The Movement initially threatened the KDP-PUK duopoly by winning a quarter of the seats in the Kurdistan parliament and becoming the region’s second-largest party.
Internal discord, government involvement and leadership changes led to a dramatic decline in support, with Gorran losing 95 percent of its vote share in the latest elections.
Earlier this year, its leader Ali Hama Saleh exited the party to form a new opposition group called the National Stance Movement.
The National Stance Movement
The National Stance Movement emerged on March 19, 2024 and was established by former members of the Gorran Movement and the National Coalition with the aim of creating a united front of dissidents.
The new group was also joined by disgruntled teachers who have been protesting the repeated failure by authorities to pay their salaries over the last few years. Draw Media reported the party submitted a list containing 62 candidates for the upcoming elections, most of whom are running in Sulaymaniyah Governorate.
The People’s Front
The People's Front is a political party in the Kurdistan Region that was founded on March 14, 2024, by the former co-chair of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Lahur Sheikh Jangi. The party’s core values are “serving the Kurdish people, freedom of opinion and civil rights,” as well as equality and democracy. In total, the party's list has 115 candidates, 56 of which in Sulaymaniyah, 40 in Erbil, 17 in Duhok and 2 in Halabja.
The New Generation Movement
The New Generation Movement was founded amid the 2018 elections.
Spearheaded by businessman Shaswar Abdulwahid, the party secured four seats in the elections of that year, and by 2021 it increased its presence to nine seats.
It’s the only Kurdish party to ever experience a surge in votes while the KDP and PUK experienced a decline.
The National Coalition
The National Coalition was founded in 2018 by former PUK member Barham Salih under the name Coalition for Democracy and Justice. The group boycotted the 2018 Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections and failed to secure any seats in the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections.
The Coalition has voiced its support for public servants protesting due to months of unpaid salaries.