MyUSTINET News: Kurds Bracing For Iraq's Election Season

ERBIL, Iraq, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Members of a major Kurdish political party in Iraq complain rivals are launching attacks on its members as the country braces for March parliamentary elections.

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Unknown assailants gunned down a member of the Change List party in late December, leaving members infuriated.

Babekir Daraei, a leading official in the party, told the Iraqi analytical Web site Niqash the attacks were politically motivated.

"The recent events are very much linked to the electoral competition", he said. "There is lots of injustice practiced against the Change Movement in Kurdistan."

Officials of the Change List were targets of a series of attacks in late 2009. Authorities said personal issues, not political motivations, were the reason for the attacks.

Nawshiran Mustafa, a former deputy in the Kurdish government, formed the Change List in 2009 as a rival to the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. His party scored a success in Kurdish elections in 2009, taking several seats from the incumbent parties.

Attacks on Change List members and failures to arrest any suspects caused some Kurds to believe the incumbent powers in Iraqi Kurdistan are intimidating opposition movements to secure their power base. Daraei, the Change List official, said, however, he is competing for a seat in March 7 parliamentary elections.

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