ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), the largest Kurdish Islamic party, is holding its ninth congress on Friday under the slogan ‘Towards a Brighter Future’. 

 

A total of 851 party members have taken part in the congress, and during the two-day process, the party’s leader, politburo, and leadership members will be elected. 

 

"The KIU over the past 30 years has been able to hold its congresses on time, successfully,” Hoshyar Abdulla, the KIU congress’s spokesperson told reporters on Friday, adding the congress will last two days. "Party representatives from across the Kurdistan Region have participated in the congress."

 

In the Kurdistan Region’s October parliamentary elections, the KIU emerged as the largest Islamic party with seven seats. It was one of the several parties that criticized the vote and claimed vote fraud had been committed, hence announcing opposition along with Halwest Movement, and the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal).

 

Komal is the second-largest Islamic party with three seats, and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (KIM), as the third-largest, did not win any seats in the legislature. 

 

The KIU’s longtime leader, Salahaddin Bahaddin, who has been the head of the party ever since its foundation in 1994, except for a four-year break from 2014 to 2018, during which he stepped down as the party’s leader, is expected to be once again elected to lead the party. 

 

The New Region has learned that Bahaddin will not have any contenders.

 

The congress’s spokesperson, however, said no individual has yet fielded a candidacy to run for KIU secretary general including the incumbent leader Bahaddin.

 

“There is no specific candidate to run for the leader of the KIU, as of yet. Whenever the door for nomination is open, everyone could field candidacy including Mr. Salahaddin Bahaddin,” Abdulla said.

 

The KIU was established in 1994 when the Kurdistan Region was gripped by a civil war between the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). 

 

The party held its last congress in November 2019.