The Kirkuk provincial council could not decide on the choice of the new logo of the province due to Christian protests and the demands of a number of artists, but discussed the problems of both the education and health sectors.
The Kirkuk provincial council met Tuesday November 12 to vote on the new logo of the Kirkuk administration, which was proposed in several different designs, but the Christian representative had comments on the lack of Syriac language on the logo.
Mohammed Hafez, the chairman of the council, told a news conference attended by Kirkuk Now that they have received dozens of requests from artists and painters to submit samples.
According to the statement of the council meeting, in the next meeting of the council, which has not been determined, the new logo of the province will be decided.
According to the law on unorganized provinces in a region, the provincial council is authorized to choose and decide on a provincial logo that reflects the heritage and culture of the province.
The northern, oil-rich, ethnically mixed province of Kirkuk is home to about 1,77 million Kurds, Turkmen, and Arabs. Located 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, it has long been at the center of disputes between the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
Another part of the agenda of the council, to host Mansour Salum, Director of Education and Arjan Mohammed, Director of Health in Kirkuk, about the obstacles and problems facing the institutions of both sectors.
The director of education said in a press conference after the hosting of the council, they agreed to open the door to employment for four specialties, namely mathematics, chemistry, physics and English, specifically for those places with lack of specialties.
"Kirkuk deserves a better scientific level than it is now. We are in 2024. We should have relied on electronic education, e-schools and e-classrooms but we still lack buildings and lack scientific specialties.”
He also complained of improper funding for the education sector in the province.
"Kirkuk education has not received any budget from the ministry or the province for a year. Even a household cannot live without any money for a whole year, so how can an educational institution survive?" he exclaimed.
A number of council members did not attend the session, including the Arab Coalition, the Iraqi Turkmen Front ITF and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which are awaiting the decision of the Administrative Court on the complaints filed against the current presidency and the formation of local governments.
According to the law, any council member who is absent from four consecutive sessions or one-fourth of the council sessions in four months without just cause will be considered resigned.
The 16-member Kirkuk provincial council, which is divided into two opposing fronts (nine of the government and seven of the protesters), has not yet decided on most of the administrative posts in the province.
The Kirkuk local administration was formed several months ago by an agreement between the PUK, some Arabs, several Shiite Turkmen parties outside the provincial council and the Christians, on condition that senior positions, including the governor and council speaker, be exchanged between Kurdish and Arab communities.
The head of the Arab coalition in Kirkuk, previous acting governor from 2017 to 2023, and the president of ITF have lodged complaints against nine members of the council representing various blocs, including Rebwar Taha, governor of Kirkuk and Muhammad Al-Hafez, provincial council speaker, with the Federal Supreme Court on behalf of the Arab and Turkmen components against the August 10 session in Baghdad that led to the formation of the Kirkuk local administration.
The opposition front in the council, consisting of the Arab coalition, the ITF, and the KDP bloc, deemed the Rashid Hotel session illegal.
*This story has been produced as part of the 'Budget is Your Right' initiative, with support from the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
