VZCZCXRO4781
PP RUEHKUK
DE RUEHKUK #0129/01 2001612
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P R 191612Z JUL 06
FM REO KIRKUK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0690
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0652
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0718

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 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶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 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶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 
---------------------- 
 
¶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 
------------ 
 
¶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