Ninawa governorate election, 2009

Ninawa Governorate election, 2009

31 January 2009

All 37 seats for the Ninawa Governorate council Turnout 60% (43%)   First party Second party   Leader Atheel al-Nujaifi Barham Salih Party Al-Hadba Kurdistani List Last election 0 31 Seats before 0 31 Seats won 19 12 Seat change 19 19 Popular vote 435,595 273,458 Percentage 43.8% 27.5% Swing 43.8% 38.4%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Tariq al-Hashimi Fahmi Yousif Party Iraqi Islamic Party Ishtar Patriotic List Last election 2 0 Seats before 2 0 Seats won 3 1 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 60,191 13,760 Percentage 6% 1.4% Swing 1.74% 1.4%

Governor of Ninawa before election Duraid Kashmoula Independent Subsequent Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi Al-Hadba

The Ninawa governorate election of 2009 was held on 31 January 2009 alongside elections for all other governorates outside Iraqi Kurdistan and Kirkuk.

Background

Three seats on the council have been reserved for religious minorities: one for Christians, one for Yazidis and one for Shabak.^[1]

In May 2008, arrest warrants were issued against a number of KDP council members who were accused of involvement in an assassination ring headed by the deputy leader of the KDP. The ring allegedly assassinated 900 people including a prominent Imam, two former senior officials of the Baath party, doctors and university professors. They were also accused of funnelled money and logistical help to al Qaeda in Iraq, in order to persuade the predominantly Arab residents to turn over security to the Kurdish Peshmerga.^[2]

Campaign

The main contest in Ninawa was between the incumbent Kurdish-backed governor and the al-Hadba party, formed by Sunni Arab tribal groups and backed by the Shiite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.^[3] During the campaign the pro-Kurdish governor, Duraid Kashmoula, said he intended to leave Mosul, the city of his birth, after the election and retire to Kurdistan.^[4]

al-Hadba complained of being targeted by Kurdish security forces.^[5] They accused the Kurdish parties of fraud in the 2005 election and, together with other non-Kurdish groups asked for federal troops to UN monitors to protect the voting centres.^[6] A candidate for the Sunni Arab "Iraq for Us" coalition was killed by a gunman who walked into a cafe and shot him.^[5] Just before the election another Sunni Arab candidate, this time from the National Unity List, was killed outside his home in Mosul.^[7]

Al-Hadba called for the removal of Kurdish peshmerga forces from Ninawa, saying many of the province's insurgent groups would become law-abiding after that.^[8] The Iraqi Islamic Party said the peshmerga should be replaced by the Iraqi Army within six months.^[9]

Results

Usama al-Najafi, a member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq and a supporter of the al-Hadba party, claimed that they had won 60% of the vote, with the Kurdish list gaining only 20%.^[10]

After the election, reports claimed that Assyrians had been fired from their jobs because they were suspected of not voting for the pro-Kurdish Ishtar Patriotic List, which won the seat reserved for an Assyrian candidate.^[11]

 Summary of the 31 January 2009 Ninawa governorate election results

Coalition 2005/2009		Allied national parties	Seats (2005)	Seats (2009)	Change	Votes
	al-Hadba National List	-	-	19	19	435,595
	Brotherhood Ninevah List	KDP, PUK	31	12	19	273,458
	Iraqi Islamic Party	IIP	2	3	1	60,191
	Ishtar Patriotic List (reserved Assyrian seat)	Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council	0	1	1	13,760
	Qusay Abbas Mohammed (reserved Shabaki seat)	Independent	0	1	1	12,949
	Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress (reserved Yezidi seat)		0	1	1	6,174
	Al Mihrab Martyr List	Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq	5	0	5	17,915
	National Rafidain List	ADM	1	0	1	6,144
	Unified Council of the Tribes of Mosul		2	0	2
Total			41	37	4	995,169
Sources: this article - Al Sumaria - New York Times

See also

• Assyrian politics in Iraq#Iraqi Governorate Elections 2009

References

1. Iraqi parliament approves amendment for provincial election law, Xinhua, 2008-11-03
2. , Al Akhbar, 2008-10-29, accessed on 2009-01-11; English translation here:
3. Fractures in Iraq City as Kurds and Baghdad Vie, New York Times, 2008-10-27
4. Iraq governor looks back on troubled tenure, Los Angeles Times, 2009-01-22
5. Election friction flares in Iraq's violent north, Reuters, 2009-01-02
6. Iraq: political blocs in Mosul demand protection, International Herald Tribune, 2009-01-14
7. Poll candidates killed in Iraq , Al Jazeera, 2009-01-30
8. Fractures in Iraq City as Kurds and Baghdad Vie, New York Times, 2008-10-27, accessed on 2009-01-05
9. Arabs, Kurds take their fight to polls, Los Angeles Times, 2009-01-25
10. Sunni nationalist group claims victory in Iraq, Associated Press via Fox News, 2009-02-03
11. Assyrians in North Iraq Fired for Not Voting for Pro-Kurdish Slate, Assyrian International News Agency, 2009-02-20