An Arab Party Based In Kirkuk To Boycott Elections

KIRKUK, (Southern Kurdistan), Jan 24 (Reuters) - An Iraqi Arab party based in Kirkuk said on Monday it was boycotting Jan. 30 polls because thousands of Kurdish refugees would be allowed to vote, reigniting a row over the election in the northern city.

The United Arab Front said it would not participate in the national polls and Kirkuk provincial elections scheduled on the same day because around 70,000 Iraqi Kurds who have returned to the area in recent months were being allowed to vote in Kirkuk.

Wasfi al-Asi, head of the party, said the Kurdish refugees were not Kirkuk residents and should not vote there.

The question of who should be allowed to vote in Kirkuk, a strategic oil city with an uneasy ethnic mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, has caused bitter arguments ahead of the polls.

Many Kurds regard the city as part of their territory in northern Iraq. But during his rule Saddam Hussein pursued an "Arabisation" policy in the city, displacing Kurds and moving thousands of Arabs there from other parts of Iraq.

Kurdish parties had initially threatened to boycott the polls unless returning Kurdish refugees were allowed to vote in Kirkuk. They later said they would take part in the elections after receiving assurances that Kurds could vote there, but that has angered the city's large Arab and Turkmen communities.

Over the past 18 months, Kirkuk has been the scene of frequent outbreaks of ethnic violence as Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen have fought to show their dominance in a city that is roughly divided among the three communities.

Turkmen parties in Kirkuk said they too were now considering boycotting the polls.