ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Candidates debate road projects in Sulaimani province during a Rudaw program, blaming each other for the failure to complete several road constructions in the province.
“Those roads should have been serving the citizens, but unfortunately, now the citizens are becoming the daily victims of these roads,” said Trifa Jalal, a candidate for the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), during Rudaw’s Chwar Bazna (Four Constituencies) program on Monday.
The KIU candidate blamed the incomplete road projects on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), stating that the authorities are responsible for the failure.
Seven main roads leading to Sulaimani city have been under construction fo the past decade. The constructions have been on and off, with some roads nearly completed but halted for the past two years.
“Now only two [road] projects are being worked on and have been allocated funds to and that is Bashmakh- Penjwen and Kalar-Darbandikhan road. The rest are halted,” said Mohammed Majeed, director of roads and reconstruction in Sulaimani.
However, Hozar Towfiq, a candidate for the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), shifted blame to the Sulaimani local administration, mainly under the control of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), as well as blaming the KIU and the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal).
“They were the ones who called for administrative and financial decentralization. So they should take the responsibility. When funds are allocated to you, you are a part of the Sulaimani administration, then who should be doing it? PUK, Komal, and KIU should,” Towfiq said.
“This is very new to me; we have not been part of the local government. I am shocked to hear [that]” responded Bawar Jalal, a candidate for Komal. “the individuals who have control of the revenues of both Yellow [KDP] and Green [PUK] zones are responsible, those who do not spend the revenues for the public good are responsible.”
Lava Aras, the PUK candidate, similarly blamed the KRG, stating, “If we are to talk about who is responsible, we can say the Kurdistan Regional Government and the new [current] KRG cabinet is primarily responsible for what is happening.”
“The new Kurdistan Regional Government cabinet has not been able to pay sufficient attention to roads in the Kurdistan region in general, but Sulaimani roads in particular.”
Bad roads in the Kurdistan Region have been a leading cause of frequent traffic accidents. Single-laned, bumpy roads leading to the province have witnessed several fatal accidents in recent years.
“Many tragic stories end up at our hospital; there are families who have only one person surviving,” Malband Mustafa, director of Khalakan health center, a town on the Erbil- Sulaimani road, told Rudaw.
In November, Bahman Abdullah, spokesperson for Sulaimani traffic police, said they had reported over 600 car accidents in the province from January to August of 2023, resulting in 92 people killed and 2,189 others wounded.
Over 3,700 traffic accidents occurred across the Kurdistan Region in 2022, killing at least 445 people and injuring 7,250 others, according to data from the Region’s general traffic police directorate.
A total of 1,044 car accidents in Sulaimani killed at least 174 and wounded an additional 3,834 in 2022, according to the spokesperson.
