The Diyala provincial council has voted to upgrade three dub-districts of into districts, but a member of the council says only one of them has been voted on.
The provincial council on Tuesday December 31 voted on the districtization of three sub-districts, including Jalawla, Qaratapa and Bani Saad.
According to a statement posted on the council's Facebook account, the council voted to make Jaloula, Bani Saad and Karatapa districts due to the increase in population and expansion of the area of the cities.
However, Aws Ibrahim, a member of the Diyala provincial council from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK faction, told KirkukNow that only Bani Saad district and Hamrin sub-district were voted on.
"During the vote for the districtization of Jaloula and Qaratapa, some members of the provincial council left the meeting and the quorum of the meeting was disrupted, only five members of the council remained in the meeting hall," he said.
"The letter of districtization of Bani Saad, which everyone signed, has been amended and the names of Qaratapa and Jalawla have been added, so we have spoken with the legal department and will take legal action against this," he added.
"Four years ago, we took the first step to turn Jalawla into a district, which coincided with the expansion of the city and increased density," Mazhar Krui, a member of the Iraqi parliament from Jaloula and brother of Diyala provincial council chairman Omar Krui, wrote on Facebook Diyala provincial council decided to turn Jalawla into a district "Today the provincial council of Diyala, thus we have achieved the goal we wished for.”
The 15 members of the Diyala Council were first divided into two teams: The Team of Eight and the Team of Seven. The two teams include a mixture of Shiite and Sunni parties seeking to secure the largest number of senior positions in the local government in their favor.
Later, a new coalition was formed by nine out of 15 members, excluding the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK, which did not participate. The other parties were the same ones that held an emergency meeting last August in Baghdad, resulting in the election of the council speaker, governor, and deputies after months of controversy.
The first council session after the elections took place on February 5, but due to disputes among factions, it remained open until August 1 at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad. The election process for speaker, deputy speaker, governor, and two deputies led to a boycott, and protesters blocs returned to the council in September. However, the election of administrative unit heads and the recent removal of the council head reignited divisions within the council.
Diyala Provincial Council consists of 15 seats, four of which are allocated to women. Diyala province is home to 1.6 million people, 90,000 of whom live in the center of the Khanaqin dominantly Kurdish district, according to estimates by the Central Bureau of Statistics for 2019.
Diyala province consists of six districts and 15 sub-districts, including various disputed areas under Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, such as Khanaqin district.
