Kurdish Pilgrims Miss Ballot

Iraqi Kurds who travelled to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj, one of Islam’s key religious duties, won’t be able to vote in Iraq’s historic elections.

Although the Hajj has ended and some Arab pilgrims have already returned to Iraq, the Kurds will not come home until the beginning of February, said Anwar Tahir of the Religious Endowments Ministry in Sulaimaniyah.

For many Muslims, the pilgrimage to Mecca is a once in a lifetime opportunity. To get permission to go, Muslims must apply for a limited number of places assigned to their country by the Saudi government.

Many Kurds who went on the Hajj said that given the choice, they would perform their religious duty rather than their civic one.

For Kamal Fatah Mahmood, a Sulaimaniyah resident, the choice was clear."A man's belief in God comes before love of homeland, thus I deem going on pilgrimage more important than the election," he said before he left for the Hajj earlier this month.

Rookhosh Jamil, whose parents and husband went on the Hajj, said they didn’t want to miss the opportunity of going to Mecca, but she added,"If they'd been here, they would have gone to vote."

Election officials in Iraqi Kurdistan say they were aware that the election date presented a problem for Iraqis going on the Hajj.

"In the beginning of November we told the IECI [Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq], but so far we haven’t got any answer," said Hama Salih Hama Amin, head of the IECI’s Sulaimaniyah office.

Sayyed Ahmed Barzinje, a senior Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, official responsible for Islamic affairs, said the Iraqi government should have taken the Hajj into consideration when it set the election date.

"If they hadn't thought of it, then the religious parties and the Ministry of Awqaf [Religious Endowments] should have notified them," Barzinje said.

But the Awqaf minister in Sulaimaniyah, Muhammed Ahmed Gaznayee, said notifying the government was not his ministry’s responsibility, but that of the Election Commission and the Pilgrimage Committee.

Those pilgrims who have returned may still find it difficult to vote. Because of curfews and travel restrictions, many "hajjis" who arrived back in the country on January 28 have been unable to get to their home towns where they are registered to vote.

There are two organisations, however, which have been charged with arranging transportation and protection for pilgrims to return home in time for the January 30 vote - the Common Coordination Centre and the Institute for the Protection of Establishments.

Rebaz Mahmood is an IWPR trainee journalist in Iraq.