Today the joint committee of the three opposition came together to discuss Barzani's message and acceptance of the two more years extension to his presidency.

After the meeting, the three parties released the following joint statement :

The joint statement of the three opposition parties regarding the political crisis in Kurdistan region

In the name of god
Dear Citizens of Kurdistan

It has been more than three months that the two ruling parties have created a political crisis in Kurdistan. Because of their insistence in extending the presidency of Masoud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan region, after they lost hope that the president has the right to legally nominate himself as a candidate for presidency, To that end and in a illegal and unconstitutional way and disregarding the democratic principles, and against the regulation of the parliament, on 30th of June they passed a law in the parliament to extend the presidency for two more years. Yesterday, the president of the region in a divisive message passed the law. We as the three parties of the opposition insist upon our previous position regarding the law extending the president's term and we consider it as illegal and maintain the right to use all possible civic means to opposite it.


This decision comes at a time when the public were expecting to go to the polls in September for parliamentary, presidential and provincial elections, according to the previous decision of the president and the head of government. Out of these three elections, because the head of the government has no right to nominate himself for presidential election and both ruling parties are scared of the provincial election, and that is why they have cancelled the presidential and provincial elections. This is an insult to democracy and disrespecting the voting right of the Kurdish people. The two ruling parties set or change the time of the election based on their moods and their short-term interests.

According to our information and investigation, the electorate list has been tempered with and the electoral commission in contravention of section 33 of election law of Kurdistan parliament has been amended and the section 6 of law amending the number 7 law of Kurdistan parliament, to open counting centre in the towns and cities and not at the polling stations. This is another mechanism for deception and changing the true outcome of the public's votes. This casts a serious doubt over the impartiality of the high electoral commission observing the the election in Kurdistan in a professional and fair way. This places some level of responsibility on the electoral commission in case of any unwanted outcome.

Therefore if the provincial and general election are not held, a fair election is not guaranteed, the electorate list is not corrected, that illegal directive of electoral commission in not revoked, the option of boycotting the election is open to the opposition.

We believed that raising the issue of constitution draft in Kurdistan region over the last three months was an excuse to open the door to extend the tenure of Masoud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan region. And now that goal has been achieved the constitution process has been forgotten again. While we have respect for all political parties and groups in Kurdistan, according to order number 2 of parliament, the discussion and revision of the constitution should be under the roof of the parliament. This is because the parliament is the sole representative of all nationalist, religious and political groups.

In the end we state that both ruling parties are taking the Kurdistan region towards a deeper crisis and the responsibility for current and future crisis is on their shoulders.