Kurdish Region 'Lagging Behind Baghdad'

“We do have a programme of reforms,” says Zozan Barwari, a senior member of the KDP. “But we are dealing with a terrible financial situation and we are fighting a war against the Islamic State group. We can only start reforming when the conditions are right for reform.”

The demand for reforms is yet another contentious topic for the broad-based governing coalition, which shares power among nearly all of Iraqi Kurdistan's political parties.

For example, during a speech at the September opening of an Erbil church, the Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced that: “We have been working on reforms ever since the government was formed. But we don't have a comprehensive project to announce”.

“The government is incapable of managing service-related projects [like power and water] and it hasn't been able to pay its employees,” the Speaker of the Iraqi Kurdish Parliament, Yusuf Mohammed, a member of former opposition part, the Change movement, followed up on Barzani's speech. “The government should take responsibility for this. If it cannot solve problems it should let the voters know. Nobody should shirk their responsibilities.”

Given the tensions currently playing out in Iraqi Kurdistan – there have been demonstrations by unpaid workers and the government, made up of uneasy alliances, looks to be struggling to maintain unity – it seems reforms may be forced upon the region.

There will be talks held about reducing the salaries of highly paid and high ranking officials. Fakhraddin Qadir, the secretary of the Iraqi Kurdish Parliament and a member of one of the Islamic parties, told NIQASH he was pleased that these talks were even being held – however he also felt there was little will to carry out genuine reform.

“Saying that there can be no reforms because of the fighting against the islamic State is a weak argument,” Qadir says. “There were reforms suggested in a package presented by the three former opposition parties. But none of it was acted upon.”