Youssef Mohammed, speaker of the Kurdistan autonomous region parliament, resigned on Tuesday in protest over the monopoly of politics, economy, land, wealth and others by “specific factions” instead of allowing fair sharing.
During a news conference to announce his resignation, Mohammed said that Kurdistan is passing through “very difficult” circumstances and citizens are suffering.
Political authorities, on the other hand, are antagonizing the public and this should be stopped, not supported, he declared.
The resignation comes a week after the withdrawal of the Movement for Change Party, also known as Gorran, from the government and parliament.
The party deputies accused Kurdish security forces of arresting around 600 people, following recent anti-government protests.
Furthermore, Mohammed criticized the insistence to maintain a failed ruling regime.
He added: “Unfortunately, it seems that the officials in Kurdistan do not hesitate in resorting to arms, intimidation and violence for the sake of maintaining authority. They refuse that the Kurdish people take part in the country.”
“Militarizing cities is not the solution, and is a violation of the constitution,” he said, hinting at measures taken by the authority to violently curb the protests.
“The resignation is a rejection of a weak and ineffective parliament, which is a dangerous phenomenon to our political life and the representation of the people,” he remarked.
Gorran and Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) announced their decision last week to withdraw from the Kurdish government, without withdrawing from local councils.
Article 16 of Kurdistan parliament statute stipulates that the parliament speaker must tender his written resignation to the parliament. After the approval of the majority, the parliament appoints in the next session a new speaker with a majority of 50+1.
