Unfortunately all the predictions are pointing towards a bad outcome  for the Kurdistani Alliance slate ( list 730) in the coming judicial elections on 15th December 2005. This should come as no surprise for any body, for there is a great frustration and discontent among all sections of Kurdish society about the performances of Kurdish self rule in the last 14 years. Although the two dominant Kurdish parties , the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)  are contesting those elections in a joint list, they are far away from being close on many vital issues and at the top of them the unification of their divided administrations in Slemani (PUK) and Hawler (KDP), which is seen by Kurdish public as a litmus paper test for the seriousness of their rapprochement. The health system, the education institutions, financial institutions are all  been divided between the two administrations with check borders operating between the two rival administrations. It is ironic for example that there is so far no direct telecommunication services between Slemani and Hawler because the two rival communication firms operating in Slemani and Hawler , which allegedly owned by people close to Mr. Talabani and Mr. Barzani respectively  have decided with impunity to block the right of telecommunication between the Kurds living in Slemani and Hawler, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg, but it is a unique example to show the reality of the cold war still raging between PUK and KDP leaderships. After nearly 14 years of Kurdish self rule there are still grave problems in Kurdistan and a widespread corruption which is eroding all the achievements of Kurdish autonomy and turning the people away from the political leadership of those parties and this could cause a catastrophe for Kurds in the coming elections if many  Kurdish voters decide do boycott the elections as a protest, something which  is widely anticipated.

To me the last chance to avert this crisis by was by reaching an urgent compromise on unifying the administrations or at least reaching  definitive timetable about this unification , something which obviously terribly missed as it was obvious from the body language of Mr. Talabani and Mr. Barzani during the recent visit of the former to Salahuddin resort, although they have desperately tried to put a brave face on it by saying that the priority is now for the preparations for coming elections and that they will discuss the matter further after the elections, which was a very unconvincing and depressing statement. Then there was a statement by Mr. Kosrat Rasul, the strong man of PUK that they will try to forge (some sort) of unification after elections, and again without setting a time table.

In recent weeks I have been closely  following the Kurdish and Iraqi media and the way they were dealing with the issue of the coming elections and mobilizing the people for the coming elections, and while I was very impressed by the way Arab Iraqi media were conducting their election propaganda in a fair and civilized way, I was shocked by the one sided coverage of Kurdish media which concentrated their efforts on attacking those Kurdish lists which decided to contest the election separately like Kurdistan Islamic Union KIU ( List 561) and Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (List 779), by labeling them as traitors and saboteurs instead of conducting a civilized and democratic debate about the substance of the competing programmes and not sinking into this low level. The concentrated and provocative campaign against KIU, have instigated some hooligans mainly in KDP-controlled areas to attack and burn the headquarters of KIU  and causing the death of four KIU members including a candidate for December elections.

Those ugly scenes of  a Kurdish mob attacking a Kurdish party headquarters in Kurdistan were very disturbing and it indicates the unhealthy political atmosphere in Kurdistan. One can   see how the Arab Iraqis are progressing towards a real democracy in spite of the current animosities among its Shiite and Sunni factions, while the Kurdish political atmosphere is deteriorating towards violence, intolerance and intimidation, and while the Kurdish leadership was busy trying to convince insurgent Arab Sunnis to join the political scheme, they have been ignoring the shortcomings and failing to fight corruption in their own administration causing the alienation of  many intellectuals and young Kurds.

The stakes for Kurds are too high in the coming elections,  a poor showing of Kurds will jeopardize all the achievements of Kurds, I  personally encourage all the Kurds not to abstain but to participate in the following election and they should make their choices for one of the Kurdistani lists ( Kurdistan Alliance 730 or Yekgertu KIU 561 or Democratic Solution Party 779). I appeal specially an Ezidi Kurds and Faili Kurds to participate actively in the coming elections and to vote for their national interests by selecting one of the Kurdistani lists.