(U) KIRKUK IECI HEAD ON NORMALIZATION, UPCOMING CENSUS AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000129

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/19/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PINS PNAT PREF PREL KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: (U) KIRKUK IECI HEAD ON NORMALIZATION, UPCOMING CENSUS AND

REFERENDUM

CLASSIFIED BY: Tim Uselmann, Political Officer, IPAO, Department
of State.
REASON: 1.4 (a),(d)

1. (C) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY: Kirkuk head of the
Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI),Ferhad
Talabani, is threatening to close the office due to poor
security, government corruption, and lack of funding. Talabani
detailed the ethnic breakdown of the office personnel and
perceived duties of the IECI during the future referendum on
Kirkuk. Talabani would like at least one UN representative in
each IECI office to supervise the upcoming provincial elections.
Local Kurdish officials may be stalling the process
deliberately with the hope of implementing unilateral
normalization of Kirkuk with little federal or independent
oversight. END INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.

(C) CHALLENGES FACING IECI IN KIRKUK
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2. (C) IPAO on 9 July 2006 met with the head of Kirkuk IECI,
Ferhad Majid Talabani, who said he has been threatening to close
the IECI office in Kirkuk for two reasons. First, there are no
guards to protect the office and employees. Talabani claimed he
has received numerous threats and that three IECI staff were
assassinated last year. He has sent a letter to the IECI head,
the President of the Iraqi Assembly, and the Iraqi President to
request better security. Second, the Kirkuk government has not
cooperated with him due to corruption and bureaucratic
indifference at the Provincial Council.

(C) KIRKUK IECI ROLL IN PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS, CENSUS
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3. (C) On the timeline for provincial elections, Talabani
thought December, 2006, was most likely. He said that Kirkuk is
ready for the elections, provided Baghdad "does not try to
control everything," and added that in the last elections
Baghdad managed staff at all the IECI offices in Iraq. Talabani
also insisted the provinces be given at least 70 days' advance
notice of the date for the elections.


(C) DETERMINING VOTER ELIGIBILITY IN KIRKUK
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4. (C) Talabani said the IECI in Kirkuk will monitor voter
eligibility, currently based on local food ration and national
identity cards, and noted that changing food card registration
is an easy process. For instance, Internally Displaced Persons
upon moving to Kirkuk go to the Food Ration Center with a
national or civil identity card to request that their food
ration records be transferred from Sulaymaniyah or other
locations to Kirkuk. Talabani would like to make a special card
for each voter to prevent forgery, but this would require
funding. He said that according to the law, "new Arabs" have
the right to vote, and that he does not anticipate problems for
the IECI during provincial elections but that the referendum
will be problematic because the IECI does not know which areas
will vote to belong to Kirkuk Province. The Kirkuk IECI has
been compiling a list of all Kurdish citizens but Talabani said
the administrative border of Kirkuk is "not clear right now so
enrolling is a problem" and claimed implementation of Article
140 must occur to determine the administrative borders of
Kirkuk. Talabani would like at least one UN representative in
each IECI office to supervise the elections, and anticipated
that either the IECI or the Ministry of Planning would conduct
the Kirkuk census, but that it probably would be the IECI and
that his office would be a "major factor" in the referendum.

(C) PRESENT AND FUTURE CONFIGURATION OF KIRKUK IECI
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5. (C) Currently there are 55 employees in the Kirkuk IECI
office, but Talabani said this number would increase for the
elections and referendum. On the ethnic representation, there
are 7 Kurds, according to Talabani, while the rest are Turkoman
and Arabs. Talabani also noted there are remnants of the Ba'ath
party in Baghdad who create problems between the Kirkuk and
Baghdad offices in any efforts to reform personnel in the Kirkuk
IECI. Talabani would like to create a board composed of 2
Kurds, 1 Assyrian, 1 Turkoman, and 3 Arabs to reorganize the
IECI office in Kirkuk.

(U) BIOGRPAHIC NOTES
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6. (C) Ferhad Majid Talabani: since 30 January 2005, a
member of the Kurdistan Supreme Electoral Committee, which
supervised IECI offices in the three Kurdish provinces. He is
from the Talabani clan but claims to be independent politically.
He was born in the Shorija neighborhood of Kirkuk in 1965;
received primary and secondary education in Kirkuk; degree in
Mechanical Engineering from Baghdad University and worked as a
contractor; lived in Yugoslavia (Skobje - Macedonia) for 6 to 7

KIRKUK 00000129 002.2 OF 002


years. He claims to speak the dialects of all the ethnic
communities of Kirkuk.

(U) COMMENT
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7. (C) Poor security, federal and local bureaucratic
indifference, and lack of funding for projects may be deliberate
attempts to stall the process in order to cite lack of action
from Baghdad as license for unilateral Kurdish efforts to
normalize Kirkuk with little federal or independent oversight.
JBIGUS