The secretary of Southern Kurdistan Parliament, Fakhradin Qadir, resigned from his post to protest two years-long closure of parliament by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Southern Kurdistan presidency.
Southern Kurdistan Parliament was shut down by KDP leader Masoud Barzani on October 2015, after he refused to step down as president of the Kurdistan region although his term ended. The parliament was opened last week to approve KDP’s decision of independence referendum.
The secretary of the parliament Fakhradin Qadir held a press conference in front of the parliament building on Saturday and announced his resignation from his post in protest at the two-year stalemate of the region’s legislature.
“The political parties want a parliament which is dependent on them and do whatever they want. They don’t want the parliament to work as people’s will. To administrate the region we needed written laws. But the parliament was dysfunctional and we were not allowed to pass the laws we needed” he said.
Qadir continued; “We tried our best and stood against corruption and lawbreakers, but the dominant parties shut the parliament door and cut salaries of public employees in the absence of parliament.”
The parliament secretary also criticized how the referendum decision was made: “The parliament has no knowledge of the decision about the referendum. The decision was made, discussed everywhere else and at last they put the decision in front of the parliament.”
Qadir also remarked that the parliament failed to set an example for other parts of Kurdistan nor support their struggle.
MP FARHAD SENGAVI ALSO RESIGNED
Farhat Sengavi, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) MP also resigned from his post after Qadir. Sengavi is known for his opposition against the independence referendum. PUK dismissed him from the party before the referendum due to his opposition.
