Photo : Collected
Iraqi Kurdish seamstress Sanaa will, like many other voters, boycott an election later this month, a signal of growing disillusionment with the political class that has long dominated the autonomous region.
Iraqi Kurdistan is seen as a relative oasis of stability in the turbulent Middle East and has historically been attractive to foreign investors thanks to its close ties to the United States and Europe.
But beneath the shiny skyscrapers of regional capital Arbil and the modern highways, activists and opposition figures point to the same issues that plague Iraq more broadly: corruption, political repression and cronyism practiced by those in power.
"There's no more trust," she told AFP, asking to use a pseudonym to speak freely about the two local political clans that have dominated Kurdish politics since the oil-rich region was formed in 1991.
"I won't vote because they do nothing," Sanaa, 33, added as she strolled through a market in Arbil where worries about the cost of living are foremost in shoppers' minds.
"They don't care about the issues that concern me. We have no money, everything is expensive."
The election for the Kurdistan parliament has been postponed four times due to disputes between the two main political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) run by the Barzani family, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), dominated by the Talabanis.
In the last regional elections in 2018, the KDP emerged as the biggest party and has ruled with allies since then.
But turnout was only 59 percent and could fall again if more people like Sanaa and her family, none of whom plan to vote, stay away from polling stations.
Messenger/Disha
