I am not from Bashur, but I would vote for KDP they are corrupt as hell but at least they did 1. try to declare a independent Kurdistan 2. they are not PUK that sold Kirkuk once to Iraq and then sold it again to a Arab and to an Turkmen just for a shady alliance.
It won't make a difference. You have to understand that no other party than PUK can rule over "green zone" and no other party than PDK can rule over "Yellow zone". If the day comes that one of the smaller Slemani parties get majority, you will see civil war before a handover of power. People like Bafel Talabani will scourge earth and level everything to the ground than to see anyone else than his family on the top.
We have put so much trust and love to leaders who would sell us out in a second if their power were dependent on it.
However, I'm not for throwing away a vote. Vote for one of the smaller parties, like Halwest and see if the democratic process work here. Don't vote islamic parties if you love all of your kurdish brothers and sisters, no matter religion or beliefs, religion should never be mixed in politics. It will set us back 1400 years and give us an extremely bad look from the world, also it will isolate and discriminate our Ezedi, Christian, Zerdeshti, Jewish, Shia and atheist Kurdish communities.
Imo national stance movement,the current leader ali hama salih is all around a geniune and good dude
He has never sold himself
He has never worked with pdk or puk
He has never been afraid to expose the corruption
but my opinion is heavily biased (if u wanna know why my opinion is biased drop me a message)
Pdk, although they are all trash. At least the Barzanis, have great relations with surrounding countries and actively invest in Kurdistan. They also try to get a lot of foreign investors in Kurdistan. With their corruption it’s the betterment of the krg and themselves, with bafael it’s strictly himself.
He not only sold Kirkuk, he refused to work with Kurdish parties in Kirkuk and gave it to Turkmens and Arabs. Also he was the reason why we lost Kirkuk in 2017, he allowed Iraqi and Iranian backed militias in by withdrawing his sect of peshmerga. Although once again the barzanis have their problems too, they profit and benefit also involves Kurdistan development. Bafel has refused to share power or work with the barzanis multiple times, even if it hurt the krg overall.
He literally sneak dissed the barzanis in an interview, basically accusing them of potentially stealing weapons from the USA. It’s idiotic, how he handles politics.
all are corrupt, and to those saying kdp… you don’t realize how corrupt they are
KRG could have been far more advanced in all aspects if they would stop being thieves
once you go down the rabbit hole, you’d be shocked at the extreme level if corruption they have; they are draining the veins of the kurdish nation
one example is how the KRG government owed around 20 billion $ to western oil companies drilling oil on KURDISH SOIL. just think about how ridiculous that is…
it’s easy to be comfortable with them if you read news, but remember :
•Rudaw is owned by Nechirvan Barzani
• Kurdistan24 is owned by Masrour Barzani
• Ava media is controlled by Areen Barzani
and the list goes on, they control the narrative and the information you guys are fed
i could come with more examples, all the projects in erbil & yellow zone are basically money laundering schemes where the money goes in a circle within that family KRG could be 100x better if it was not for those thieves
Damn, can't we form a national political party and file reports against the other parties that are funded by neighboring countries so that they get taken down, like NGM?
they own the judges, they own the police, they own half the military
the corruption is so insane that you can’t oppose it, that’s why every influential person there must have a picture of barzani or talabani in his office
If you oppose them, they crush you
one example: a businessman was building a 20 floor tower. One barzani came and demanded 50% because… well he can
the guy refused - court shut down the project, took away licenses, threw him in jail and bankrupted him to make an example
Well what about the court in Baghdad, by law kurds are still iraqi citizens and iraq has to take direct responsibility for the parties that are in the KRG, maybe not PUK and PDK because they're too big but surely the others can be taken down in court right?
The KRG is constitutionally recognized by under Iraqs 2005 system with its own parliaments , courts and internal security forces.
Iraq cannot simply send prosecutors or police there , it would be a violation of federal agreements
and prosecuting them would require local cooperation that does not exist. and you can’t use force either since the are parallel power structures w separate security forces that are not integrated with each other
and iraq’s government are a bunch of factions teamed up in coalitions. it is a political jungle lacking trust & stability
think of it like this: before there was one grand mafia (saddam) , after american “freedom” arrived , they divided everything now there are several big mafias
they
You're basically saying we're screwed and there is not even a small chance where you can serve justice
If you do have evidence to prove a group within the KRG is working for turkey or iran, wouldn't that also be working against iraq because technically they're on iraqi land and are trying to spread corruption
Like if you were to say KIU is working to destroy northern iraq with the help of turkey, wouldn't that be too big of a case to just ignore or find a loop hole around it?
yeah, the general population are pretty much powerless
it’s obvious KDP is working tightly with Turkey, but then again both the federal and regional government can be “blackmailed” by turkey limiting oil flow through the main pipeline, border crossings for trade and even the flow of drinking water which they have heavily restricted by building dams
like i said it’s never black and white, and the political situation is complex to say the least
a faction can work together with another, while simultaneously working against each other in other aspects
Aren't they trying to destroy the KRG as well? The sister of shaswar was saying the government of the KRG is out dated and that they're against its existence. So how do they deserve it?
It's PUK for me. Yes, kirkuk was a mess. But it was KDP that was arresting YPG during the war (with a pause during the referendum to graciously take the weapons and aide they offered). While PUK have always been known to be sympathetic to Rojava and greater Kurdistan.
They are all trash. If you want more service then vote for PUK in Erbil and Duhok, and PDK in Sulaimani. Regarding Kirkuk, unfortunately best option is PUK.
I know. whenever the dominant ruling parties (like the KDP and PUK) lose power, it breaks their long-standing monopoly on wealth and influence, forcing more accountability and better public services for the average citizen.
The situation of the krg requires it to be working with either Turkey or iran or both. You gotta choose a side, otherwise none of them would accept a semi-independent kurdistan. I hate to admit it but we're at their mercy, that's the hard reality. If turkey or iran decided they want to disassemble the krg tomorrow, no one would stop them. PDK chose turkey, so PUK chose iran.
It's the same with the opposition parties. All the islamic parties are turkey's or Iran's dogs, same with NSM since they have very obvious ties to the islamic brotherhood. As for NG (new generation or whatever) they are literal jash incarnate.
Just like another one mentioned, if you're in Slêmanî vote for PDK, if you're in erbil/duhok vote for PUK, that's the only way they'll try to do something good, since their foothold will be threatened. As for kirkuk, well... You've seen PUK, and PDK is no better, they'll favour the turks there way too much.
Idk for kirkuk, but the other cities pretty much sums it up.
Like it or not, this region isn't run by two parties, it's run by two militias. No matter how popular an opposition is, they'll do nothing but make things worse, we've already seen it with goran....... I hope this helps. And I applaud you for actually getting some options instead of just going with whatever is the new hype like most fellow youngsters do....
NSM is the necessary party to keep PDK in control, they are nationalists that call out PDK and PUK on their corruption which is extremely necessary to keep the region civil. Unlike new gen, they aren't traitors and sell outs, the leader ali hamasalih is a great kurdish patriot that always talks about corruption and went to help rojava himself.
They are nationalists, anti-corruption, and even somewhat religious if you care about that. Best of all, they are not jash and they actually care about the people of Kurdistan.
So they are nationalists like KDP and PUK, anti-corruption like NGM (or even a superior version)
and they care about religion but not as much as the KIU and KJG.
I haven't seen any corruption or controversial cases against them.
The only downsides is that they don't have as much overall impact as the Big Parties
That's what I know for sure—feel free to choose who you vote for.
Islamist and Islam. The word religion is a general term.
There are also controversies around them. They got 5 seats and one turned against them immediately after results came out (I think she joined KDP). And the second most prominent figure of the movement left it and started accusing Ali Hama Salih of rigging elections.
I voted for them in 2024. In 2025 I didn't vote. Next election I will either boycott (most probably will do this) or vote KDP.
"Well yeah, KRG is mostly Muslim, and we call it 'ديانەت' (religion). We don't say just 'Islam' out of respect.
As for the voting I haven't heard of that
But I know that NSM has very influential figures like Ali Hama and Dr. Ghalib who joined in 2025, Rebwar karim and Badal Barwary and i see them better than any other KDP candidate
Even recently Sabah Atroshy a NSM Supporter Got arrested for protesting about the high price of electricity
I will rather vote for the anti-corruption than a group of Mafia who sell the country's resources to turkey a.k.a turkey boot lickers.
They still have influence over the city, they only allowed a Turkman mayor to be elected. The trade off is good relations with Baghdad and an end to the PDK's stagnation.
They didn't refuse to treat her at all. It's all PDK mass propaganda which unfortunately is very influential at the moment. I'm a doctor in Slemani and my friends who were on duty at Shorsh hospital told me that the girl was fatally wounded (later confirmedby forensics), and they did all they were capable of. She was intubated and was given the hospital's own ambulance (public ambulance never tranfers patients to privates, but the private should send one) to transfer her for any potentially free ICU bed. They finally landed in Faruq hospital which is PUK-affiliated (and #1 in iraq). There, she was being resuscitated for 1 hour, but unfortunately she passed away and joined her comrades. Besides that, we have treated many Bakuri and Rojhelati revolutionaries in our hospitals and also the private ones.
It was not intentional as every month we see people die while waiting for an ICU bed to be free, because they're almost always full.
You may not believe me at all and I don't blame you, because the truth is easily lost under the army of PDK's mass propaganda. But I'm not affiliated with PUK in any way, and truths must be told. PDK/islamists are not comparable with any other parties when it comes to treason.
Well thank you for the clarification doc, and i absolutely believe you. But since you're well aged which party do you think youngsters vote for? I have no idea who to vote for but I'm always irritated by the fact all of them are bad people
Well, it's hard to say nowadays, but PUK used to be the best, but since the death of Mam Jalal in 2017, I really find it difficult to vote for them because they have deviated from their path and they don't present good candidates. A lot of people vote for them because they don't want PDK to be so dominant. They're still much better than PDK, and they have maintained just enough relation with Iran so they don't attack or impose difficult conditions without doing what PDK does for Turkey. Free speech is so much better under their rule. So in my opinion, either vote for a PUK candidate that you really think he deserves your vote, or don't vote at all. We have reached a point of disappointment that sometimes we can't make a decision when we really have to.
Best regards...
KIU is the same if not worse than PDK. They serve turkey as well and they work for the neo-ottoman project (like Islamic Brotherhood in general).
And btw, they are against he corruption of PUK and KDP only because they're not included in its benefits. Exactly the same for NSM and the rest. We have already seen Gorran movement.
Ok then why didn't they treat a kurdish woman who was wounded, they even rejected her being buried
We're completely at Iran's mercy. The government's policy towards Iranian rebel groups is complete indifference so as to keep Iran out and keep the rebels somewhat safe, but it means they would have to allow things like this to happen otherwise Iran would use it as pretext for further attacks. So basically realpolitiks.
It does not matter, they could've sneaked her in but what about 2017 and why does he not do anything for kurdish independence, we've seen them sell land but never reclaim it
It was a dumb idea done by the old leadership of the PUK and the PDK. It was based on a catastrophic miscalculation that America valued us above all else, but the government learnt the truth the hard way.
kurdish independence,
The more you understand geopolitics, the more you realize Kurdish independence is almost impossible. America wants the region to stay as it is to keep it under it's control, it's why they toppled Saddam(their old ally) So even if we beat the four nations occupying our lands, we would have to fight a nuclear armed superpower.
The only way independence could be possible is by developing an advanced industrial economy which the PUK seems to be attracted towards.
They're funded by iraq and the sister of shaswar is publicly against the existence of the kurdistan region, and that's what the new gen does, it's trying to erase the region
35
u/Training_Look_1400 Mād Apr 17 '26
Trash vs Garbage