Diyala Elections Were Illegal, Council Member Charges

[Aslan]

DIYALA, Iraq – The re-elections of Omer Hamiri and Muhammad Jawad to the Diyala Provincial Council are illegal because the voting was conducted in the absence of the Kurdistani list, a council member has charged.

The re-election process was illegal, because it was conducted in the absence of the Kurdistani list,” Zahir Tahir, a member of the Diyala Provincial Council, told Rudaw.

Hamiri was re-elected governor and Jawad won a second term as head of the Diyala Council in Iraq’s provincial council elections on April 20.

Tahir also said that he and the head of the Kurdistani bloc, Najmadin Karim, were not informed about the meeting. “I would not have attended it anyways,” he added.

In the volatile Diyala province, the National Coalition came in first place with 12 seats, the Iraqya bloc won 10 seats, and the Kurdish bloc came in third with only 3 places.

Tahir insisted that the Kurdish bloc in Diyala would take the matter to the federal court, but also accused Karim Zangana, who was appointed as first deputy governor, for making unilateral deals with the governor.

Zangana dismissed the allegation, and claimed that the process was legal. “Eighteen out of 29 members of the council voted yes to the re-election,” he said, adding that, “The representatives of the Kurdistani list and the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdisatn) leadership were aware of my agreement with the governor.”

Talib Hassan, former head of the Diyala Provincial Council also confirmed that the re-election process was illegal.

“The provincial law stipulates that the head of the council and his deputy must be appointed in the first meeting,” he said. “However, in its first meeting, the Diyala Provincial Council only appointed the head of the council. In addition the meeting was held in the governor’s office, instead of the provincial council’s building.”

“Moreover, 11 members of the council were not informed about the meeting,” he said, adding that for these reasons Hamiri’s re-appointment will be revoked by the court.

In the 2009 provincial elections, the Kurdish bloc won six seats and was guaranteed the head of the council’s post.

Zangana said that the Kurds had lost the head position because they failed at effective negotiations with the other groups inside the council, “even though the Iraqiya coalition had openly warned the Kurds that it wouldn’t ignore the Shiite groups in order to make a coalition with the Kurds,” he added.