The Change movement had previously been very opposed to the referendum. On the morning of the referendum, Omar Sayed Ali, the general coordinator of the Change movement, confirmed his participation and said that he would be voting “yes” too.
“We expect a better and more positive internal situation when it comes to relations between the political parties in Kurdistan after the referendum,” Mohammed Elkhani, a Turkmen member of the High Council on the Referendum, tasked with negotiating with Baghdad on the subject. “It brought the different political parties together for a common cause.”
The population of Iraqi Kurdistan also appear united on the issue. The most recent count indicates that around 92 percent of locals voted for independence; that’s around 3.3 million people. On local social media, even those who had argued against holding the referendum now posted smiling pictures of themselves voting “yes”.
However, celebrations may prove short lived. Almost immediately the Iraqi government presented the Iraqi Kurds with a post-referendum list of demands, saying they needed to give up control of their border posts, including airports, as well as oil exports. They also demanded that the results of the referendum be annulled and said they would not recognize said results, although as some pundits have pointed out, the referendum was always non-binding.
As Abdullah al-Zaidi, a representative of the ruling Shiite Muslim political alliance that runs the country, told NIQASH, the Kurds should have been expecting that kind of reaction.
“We will not negotiate on the basis of the Kurdish independence referendum and we informed the Kurds of this position before the referendum was held,” says al-Zaidi, who is responsible for the Kurdish portfolio in Baghdad. “We also told the Kurdish delegation that negotiations before the referendum would be different from negotiations after the referendum.”
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