“As Muslim people, our governing system, economic system, social, moral, education, and scientific systems must be derived from the Quran and Sunnah,” Ali Bapir, leader of the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal) said during an election rally in Garmiyan’s town of Kalar.
Emphasizing the importance of voicing criticism and concerns, Bapir told his supporters that his party focuses on the faults in the region.
“Running a country is not done like this,” Bapir said. He criticized what he described as the division of the Kurdistan Region into two “Yellow” and “Green” zones, referring to the two main ruling parties’ spheres of influence in the Region.
Komal introduced its candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections last week in Erbil.
Despite working together in the KRG, the two dominant parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - have established control over different parts of the Region, often referred to as the “Yellow Zone” and “Green Zone” respectively. The KDP is dominant in Erbil and Duhok provinces, while the PUK controls Sulaimani and Halabja.
In March 2023, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani called for differences in the Kurdistan Region to be approached in a “unified and united manner.”
Komal was established by Bapir, a longtime commander of the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan (IMK), an umbrella group of Islamic political forces formed in 1987. It sought territorial control of parts of the Kurdistan Region with the aim of implementing Islamic law (Sharia).
The Kurdistan Region is set to hold parliamentary elections on October 20, two years after its originally scheduled date. The vote was delayed multiple times, mainly due to disputes between political parties. Komal and the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) are the Region’s two Islamist parties running for the legislature.
