Iraqi Kurds go to polls, still at odds with Baghdad

By Tim Cocks and Shamal Aqrawi

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi Kurds will vote on Saturday in elections expected to keep President Masoud Barzani in power in Kurdistan but unlikely to erase voter concern about corruption or end a bitter feud with Baghdad over land and oil.

Polls open at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) in the largely autonomous northern region, and close at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), after which ballots will be flown to Baghdad for tallying. The official count is expected to take 2-3 days if no one challenges it.

The people of the relatively peaceful enclave will elect a leader directly this time, unlike the last polls in 2005, when Kurds voted only for members of parliament, who then elected the president. Former guerrilla leader Barzani looks certain to crush his five competitors.

Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the region's most powerful parties, will run for seats on a joint list against 23 alliances of myriad smaller parties.

As the poll drew near, Barzani and other Kurdish leaders churned out fiery rhetoric about claims to territories they dispute with Baghdad's Arab-led government.

Diplomats see the row over oil-producing Kirkuk and surrounding areas as the greatest threat to Iraq's long-term stability as sectarian violence fades, but many Kurds support Barzani's hardline approach against Baghdad, from where Saddam Hussein launched deadly attacks against Kurds in the 1980s.

"Kirkuk is the most important thing to Kurds," said Yunis Mohammed Qader, 39, outside the sweltering oven of his pizza takeaway. "Only Barzani and the KDP-PUK can bring it back."

The Kurd-Arab row has held up critical energy legislation in the national parliament and casts a pall over the government's efforts to secure foreign investment in the oil sector.

Although Kurds have long dreamed of their own state and such rallying cries used to define Kurdish politics, many Kurds now worry more about problems closer to home, like graft.

ALL CHANGE?

Critics of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) point to widespread official corruption, abuses by security forces, media intimidation and an atmosphere they say stifles dissent.

"They feed on our money. They point to buildings and say it's development, but do you think most Kurds can go in that hotel?," bar worker Haider Abdul said of Kurdish leaders, pointing at a fancy Arbil hotel in the distance.

An alliance hoping to capitalize on disenchantment is the "Change" list, run by independent candidate Noshwan Mustafa.

While the polls are not expected to topple the region's two-party hegemony, "Change" officials hope for up to a third of the 111 seats in parliament, despite what they say is the ruling alliance's use of public funds for party campaigning.

"Our priority is to clean up the system and give it back to the people," said Safin Malaqara, head of the Change campaign in Arbil. "The ruling parties haven't put any oversight in place on the region's budget. God knows where all that money goes."

Sensitive to these criticisms, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, who heads the campaign of the joint KDP-PUK list, has made transparency and accountability a key issue.

Officials from KDP-PUK alliance point out that Kurds are for the most part proud of their relatively prosperous enclave, which has flourished while much of Iraq descended into bloody chaos and insurgency after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"Kurdistan was a desert, we had nothing. Now look," said Abdilselam Berwari, head of the KDP Political Studies center. "I won't say we're angels ... but the two parties have brought successes to Kurdistan. The people know that."

Barzani's nephew, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, will be replaced by a PUK nominee as part of a power-sharing deal between the two parties, which waged civil war in the 1990s.