Residents of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region go to the polls Saturday. The two-and-a-half million eligible voters will be electing a parliament and, for the first time, a president. Another first is that a third party has emerged and is challenging the status quo.

In the 17 years since the region gained autonomy from Baghdad, two parties have dominated the political scene in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG): incumbent KRG President Massud Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Long-standing rivals, the parties have recently joined forces in an effort to ward off challengers to their two-thirds parliamentary majority. KDP and PUK candidates are all running on the coalition Kurdistani List.

'Change'
Although President Barzani – who was elected by the parliament in 2005 – is expected to sweep the popular vote, and the Kurdistani List is also predicted to maintain a slim majority, one party has already transformed the political landscape of the KRG.

The Goran, or Change, party, led by dissident PUK members, is attracting voters fed up with the status quo.

Kawa Hassan is a Kurdish expert based in Amsterdam:

“It’s what you can call the politics of hope and change. It’s very much comparable to the election of Obama in the US. The emergence of the move for change has mobilised, energised and electrified the Kurdistan electorate and Kurdish politics.”

Citing rampant corruption, tribalism, lack of services and increasing tensions with the central government in Baghdad, the party’s name speaks for itself.

Historic
Polling data is hard to come by but election watchers are predicting that up to 30% of the popular vote and over 10% of parliamentary seats could go to Goran.

This, says Kawa Hassan, is a truly historic moment for Kurdistan:

“This is a kind of a quiet constitutional revolution because it means that there will be for the first time, a dynamic real opposition and a dynamic democratic parliament which could hold the government accountable.”

And that’s a prospect the current governing parties don’t look forward to.

Constitution
Ahead of this weekend’s vote, the KRG parliament recently approved a controversial new constitution. Political opponents see it as an attempt by the old guard KDP and PUK to keep a firm grip on the region: anticipating losses in the parliament, the new constitution marginalises the legislature and grants more power to the Regional President.

But, says Kawa Hassan, the days of politics as usual are over:

“The Change list is pivotal, it’s paramount and it’s historic. Regardless of the results and how many seats Change will win, the political landscape has changed for ever, and for the better.”

Listen to the Newsline interview with Kawa Hassan in full: