The Guardian - Monday December 12, 2005
Pop star drafted in as voters threaten to stay away in protest at living conditions Michael Howard in Sulaimaniya

The stadium is packed, the speakers are blaring and legendary pop star Zakaria is bouncing around on stage, revving up the crowd with the hits that have made him a hero for local Iraqi Kurds. But when he pauses for some trademark audience participation, it becomes clear the star has not been flown in from his home in Sweden to shift CDs.

Instead of rousing fans to sing along to his anthems, Zakaria has other numbers for them. "Seven-three-zero, seven-three-zero," he chants. The figure 730 is the official number assigned to the Kurdistan Alliance for this week's elections, the first under the new constitution ratified in October, and a landmark moment in Iraq's transition to democracy. The concert is part of an urgent last-minute push by Kurdish leaders to get increasingly disgruntled voters to turn out, the last steps towards democracy in Iraq: installing a full-time parliament and government in Baghdad.

With less than a week to go, there are fears young Kurds will snub the polls in protest at corruption, poor services and lack of jobs and housing in their northern self-rule region. In the January polls, the alliance won 77 seats, making Kurds the second-largest bloc in parliament. But this time round the number of Kurdish seats is expected to shrink as Sunni Arabs vote en masse for the first time.

Against this backdrop, every last Kurdish vote will be crucial to maintaining influence and representation in Baghdad. Party leaders say they will be happy with anything above 50 MPs.

"Kurdistan is a young society; the vote of people under 30 is vital for us so we can achieve our goals in Baghdad," said Kosrat Rasoul, head of the alliance's election campaign and a senior Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader. Kurds would work to secure a "democratic, federal, pluralist Iraq", he said.

Kurdish politicians have criss-crossed their mountainous homeland, hosting youth forums, appearing on talkshows and announcing projects to revive the education system. But it may be too little too late. The last few months have seen street protests and student strikes across Iraqi Kurdistan. Protesters have railed at everything from lack of electricity and fresh water in student dorms to corruption among local officials, spiralling housing costs and the control on daily life exercised by the two parties.

The Kurds, who make up about 20% of the Iraqi population, have a lot at stake. They have enjoyed a period of peace and relative prosperity that Iraqis elsewhere have come to envy. Roads and hospitals are being built. The cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniya boast new international airports. Hotels are packed with visiting businessmen.

But a poor showing at the polls could see Kurdish leaders losing the powerful political leverage they have wielded in Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein. That could endanger plans to put as much distance as possible between the Kurdistan region and central government, as well as jeopardise ambitions to include the contested oil-rich city of Kirkuk within their federal entity.

But for many young Kurds such "national" issues take second place to the growing dissatisfaction with the way their region - free from Baghdad's control since 1991 - is being governed.

"I will not vote. I want independence for Kurdistan but I am fed up with the dominance of the two parties," Shirwan Abdul Aziz, a 20-year-old student of English at Sulaimaniya University, said, referring to the main alliance groupings. "They play with our future and make lots of money in Baghdad, but they can't even provide more than a few hours' electricity a day for our people." His view was typical of many young Kurds who spoke to the Guardian.

"Even a small boycott could hurt us, but I think despite the complaints, many of which are legitimate, most will realise that it is in their interest to vote," said Barham Salih, Iraq's planning minister and a PUK member. As a sweetener yesterday, plans for an American university in Sulaimaniya were unveiled by Iraq's Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani.

"The youth are fed up. They feel they have no room to breathe," said Stran Abdullah, editor of Aso (Horizon) newspaper which is published in Sulaimaniya. "There are lots of media outlets but few independent voices; all are controlled by political parties," he said. "To get a job, or to get promotion once you get that job, or even to play sport at a decent club, you need to express loyalty to a political party."

There is a yawning gap, he said, between the "ageing men" who fought the regime heroically in the mountains and who are now running the region, and those young adults who have grown up without the spectre of Saddam and "who expect efficient transparent government, not from Baghdad but from their own leaders".