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PM Barzani: Today's elections mark start of a new era for Iraq

1,072 views · Published 12 May 2018 · 2:19 · Indexed 27 October 2026

Channel: Rudaw English · 2018 · News & Politics

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Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani described Saturday's parliamentary elections as a "an important and historic day where people elect their representatives to the Iraqi parliament through the ballot box. We hope the people of Kurdistan Region head to the polling stations and cast their votes." 

Speaking to reporters after casting his ballot, Prime Minister Barzani said that it was important to take into account the principle of consensus and the position of Kurds and other minority groups when forming Iraq's next government.

"It's clear no party would be able to form a government without a coalition," he said. "We don't think a majority government would be in Iraq's best interest. The process in Iraq is built on the principle of consensus. And with a major participant as Kurds the idea of consensus must be taken into account. Without consensus the future government in Iraq would be unlikely to succeed."

The Kurdish prime minister said that Iraq is facing a new dawn and he hoped that both Baghdad and Erbil would use the events of the last several years as a lesson to resolve their disputes through dialogue and by leaning on the constitution.

"The issues we faced in the last few years were a lesson for us and for Ira," he said. "I hope that that experience would lead both sides to the fact that all disputes that remain unsolved since 2005 should be solved on the negotiating table in the next phase which is a completely new phase in Iraq."

"It's the phase of post-ISIS defeat, the phase in which more attention should be paid to providing public services to all Iraq including Kurdistan, a phase where the economy of this country must be improved. And all these things need political stability in this country. Without resolving these disputes between Erbil and Baghdad we don't think that political stability will come about which is the main condition for all progress." 
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