The governor of Salahaddin has appointed a Kurd as the director of agriculture in Tuzkhurmatu, following the threat of withdrawal of the only Kurdish member of the provincial council.
According to a decree issued by Salahaddin Governor Badir Mohammed on Sunday, March 2, Hussein Ali of the Kurdish community will replace Ali Jalal of the Arab community.
"We held our last meeting in the provincial council today and we were able to win the post for the Kurdish community," Yasin Mohammed, a member of the provincial council, told KirkukNow.
"Some parties have been opposed to giving the post to the Kurds for some time and therefore the process of appointment of Hussein Ali in the post was postponed to Sunday ... This post was previously the share of the Kurds, but was taken back from the Kurds.
Last week, Yasin Mohammed, the only Kurdish candidate in the Salahaddin provincial council, threatened to withdraw from the council and boycott the council meetings, because the council did not approve the appointment of the Kurdish candidate for the post of director of agriculture in Tuzkhurmatu.
Salahaddin provincial council has been going through conflicts between political parties and opposing factions, so the withdrawal of the only Kurdish candidate and joining each faction would affect the decisions of the council, as Yasin Mohammed said.
“This pushed them to finally approve the Kurdish candidate,” Mohammed added.
The predominantly Sunni province of Salahaddin, located about 135 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital, was once home to Saddam Hussein. It is currently under the control of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), including the Shia-led paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as al-Hashid al-Shabi.
Salahaddin had the most problem-free provincial council in Iraq. The council held its first meeting on February 4 and was able to form a local government within hours. The National Masses coalition, which included several Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties, won four out of the 15 seats in the provincial council during the December elections. They formed a local government with other Sunni parties of Siyada (Sovereignty) and al-Hasim al-Watani (National Decisiveness) coalitions.
The provincial council of Salahaddin is made up of 15 seats, with four reserved for women based on the 1.6 million people population. This allocation is in accordance with the latest amendments to the electoral law of the Iraqi parliament and provincial councils.
"He will take office on Sunday," Mohammed affirmed.
"They thought that the man we nominated would modify the agricultural land in the area, which is currently in dispute over the ownership of hundreds of acres of land in the district," Yasin said.
"We don't want to occupy anyone's land and do injustice, but we want to return the rights to the landowners.
There are 52 pieces of agricultural land in dispute in Tuzkhurmatu district, each of which is between 5 to 20 hectares, according to Ali Jalal, the former director of agriculture in Tuzkhurmatu.
