ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Rayan al-Kildani, the leader of the Iran-backed and nominally-Christian Babylon Movement, on Wednesday launched his party’s campaign for the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections in the city of Sulaimani, stressing that the elections will bring about “root change” to the Region.

“We believe that change is coming – us and our partners – and we believe that there will be a root change in the government’s work in Erbil,” Kildani said in a press conference in Sulaimani. “Today, from Sulaimani province, we announce the start of the election campaign for the Babylon Movement.”

Kildani was welcomed in Sulaimani by officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which controls the city. PUK leader Bafel Talabani enjoys close ties with Kildani.

In the disputed city of Kirkuk, the Babylon Movement won the sole Christian quota seat in the Iraqi provincial council elections, and its winning candidate in August attended a meeting in Baghdad to tip the PUK’s pick for governor over the line.

“Today, there exists a large amount of freedom in Sulaimani. We want to have this freedom in all of Kurdistan’s provinces,” Kildani said.

The Babylon Movement is an Iran-backed, nominally-Christian party and militia affiliated with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The party and Kildani himself have been repeatedly slammed for land grabs in Christian-majority towns in Iraq’s northern Nineveh Plains, as well as in the capital Baghdad.

Its armed wing, the Babylon Brigades or the PMF’s 50th Brigade, are routinely accused for threatening Christian residents in Nineveh and Baghdad, particularly in the former after the Islamic State (ISIS) was defeated in the area. A profile of the brigade in March 2023 described it as “a local Christian force but has been recruited largely from Shia Muslim communities in Baghdad’s Sadr City, al-Muthanna, and Dhi Qar.”

In 2019, the US Treasury sanctioned Kildani for human rights abuses, corruption, and the persecution of religious minorities in Iraq.

“The 50th Brigade has systematically looted homes in Batnaya, which is struggling to recover from ISIS’s brutal rule. The 50th Brigade has reportedly illegally seized and sold agricultural land, and the local population has accused the group of intimidation, extortion, and harassment of women,” the US Treasury said at the time.

Kildani also accused “several parties” of interference and “controlling and seizing the seats of the Christian component,” despite his party winning four out of five seats for Iraq’s Christian minority in the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections – an outcome many Christians say was achieved with help from Iran-backed Shiite parties.

The Kurdistan Region is set to hold parliamentary elections on October 20 after repeated delays and two years after the originally scheduled date. Political turmoil between the PUK and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on numerous issues, including minority seats, have hindered the vote from materializing earlier.

A total of 136 lists with 1,191 candidates will vie for 100 seats at the Kurdish legislature, and elections were last held in 2018.