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Kurdish parties come together to set date for independence referendum
From Rudaw net Kurdistan
17-04-2017 - ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Region is bracing itself for a historic week in which its political parties are due to sit together and set a date and mechanism for a referendum on deciding whether to stay as part of Iraq or separate and establish an independent state.The Kurdish presidency has already asked all parties to appoint their respective delegates to a commission that would be overseeing the referendum.
Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of the Kurdish president told Rudaw that he has contacted all parties, including the Change Movement (Gorran) and suggested that they appoint their envoys to the commission and that “the start of next week the high-level meeting would take place.”
Hussein said that the commission will be tackling the question of how and when the referendum will be held and what mechanism would be employed.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) are now leading the front that pushes for a referendum on separation from or staying with Iraq and they have, since last month, reached out to other groups to bring them on board.
All parties welcomed the joint KDP-PUK delegation except Gorran and the Turkmen Front who refused to meet with them.
Hussein said that the question of referendum isn’t just a KDP-PUK thing and that all parties have thrown their weight behind it.
The PUK and KDP, Kurdistan region’s two main parties, fell out following the last elections and there was even talk of abolishing a strategic agreement they had signed in 2005. But in recent weeks they seem to have united behind the quest for independence from Iraq.
Mahmoud Muhammad, a senior KDP official said he was confident the PUK meant business this time and that it will stand by his party on an important question like that of the future of Kurdistan.
Senior KDP official Adnan Mufti reassured his KDP partners that they shouldn’t doubt PUK’s sincerity in the campaign, saying that the referendum and independence isn’t the property of just one party and that it is the desire and want of all the Kurdish people.
Mufti said that the political parties must also know that their driving of the project isn’t enough and that they need the support of the people in order to succeed.
The timing of the referendum will be one of the topics of next week’s multi-party meeting.
Khalil Ibrahim of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) revealed that in all likelihood the vote will take place after September.
According to Ibrahim, reopening the Kurdish parliament which has been inactive since October 2015 will also be one of the major discussions at the next meeting, which he agreed would be vital for the whole referendum process and its legitimacy.
//www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/170420171
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