The fact that all of these models of government were unsuccessful is due not to the models themselves, argues Samir Salim of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, but to the political environment here, where there are only partisan interests. Salim himself has been part of a broad based, coalition -style government and he has been in opposition. He believes that the broad based government is actually the weakest model.
“The democratic process is not on the right path here,” Salim told NIQASH.
The latest form of administration in Iraqi Kurdistan has been another just-failed experiment in broad based, coalition-style government. The latest government saw all of the region's major and minor parties come together in one government. Even though there was supposedly no opposition, things didn't really work out like that.
Hussein, a leading member of the KDP, says his party was wishing for a return to the old two-party rule when they and the PUK could (mostly) agree on things.
“For us, that kind of government was easier and better than any other format,” Hussein told NIQASH.
Interestingly Kwestan Ali Abdullah, a senior member of the Change movement, also believes the best model of governance involved the two major parties in government with the others, including hers, serving as an opposition, and basically as watchdogs.
“The opposition parties were revealing information to voters to put pressure on the government and the government was forced to enact some fairly minor reforms,” she says, “If this pattern had continued, then the government would have eventually been under more pressure and would have had to get involved in genuine reforms.”
In fact the only form of government that has yet to be tested in the Iraqi Kurdish democratic arena is that of one-party rule. While the two major parties dominate in their individual areas - and this could be considered a one-party rule on the provincial level - it's never happened on a regional level. Up until now, no single party has been able to dominate elections enough although, on the whole, the KDP has always managed to get the most votes.
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