I Vote, Therefore I Am
NEED TO KNOW
I Vote, Therefore I Am
IRAQI KURDISTAN
Lawyers affiliated with a range of political parties in Kurdistan recently volunteered to help voters who face intimidation, coercion or other aggression at polling sites during the semi-autonomous Iraqi region’s parliamentary elections on Oct. 20.
They want every Kurd to be able to cast their ballot freely, regardless of their political affiliation, and are volunteering because the government led by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party hasn’t been adequately ensuring the integrity of the ballot, Kurdish news site Rudaw wrote.
The vote is a long time coming. Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani has rescheduled the ballot five times since 2022 because the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the largest opposition party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan couldn’t agree on how to conduct the elections, reported Voice of America. The dispute, which included fisticuffs on the floor of parliament, lasted long enough for an Iraqi court to suspend the legislature in 2023 after its remit expired, added Reuters.
That said, Kurdistan has continued to function in part because “party elites largely dictate governmental affairs through a variety of formal and informal mechanisms, elections being just one,” noted the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.
Still, the parties eventually agreed to divide Kurdistan into four electoral constituencies, reserve 30 percent of parliamentary seats for women, and allocate five out of 100 seats to minorities, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.
The election has substance, too. Faced with internal divisions and external pressure from Baghdad, Iran and Turkey, analysts say the election is the most critical one in a generation – the future of Iraqi Kurdistan’s autonomy hinges on it.
For example, Kurdistan’s government – a close American ally within Iraq – can’t pay its bills, including oil-tax-fueled salaries that are the bedrock of the local economy. That’s because the Iraqi government has refused to release money to Kurdistan due to disputes between officials over how much each side owes the other.
In these talks, Kurdish leaders in the capital Erbil want to preserve their independence against what they view as an increasingly intrusive and controlling government in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, explained the Washington Institute of Near East Policy.
Via court cases, the Iraqi government, for instance, has argued for paying Kurdish public sector employees directly, and then deducting those payments from its total aid to the Kurdish government. Iraqi officials also have gone to court to require Kurdistan to provide them with an accounting of their oil and non-oil revenues. These moves shift a lot of bureaucratic power from Erbil to Baghdad, alarming not only Kurds but also their US allies.
Turkey is adding to that pressure: Iraqi leaders have also been cooperating more closely with Turkey, announcing a ban on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group seeking to establish a sovereign, fully autonomous Kurdistan in Iraq, Turkey and Syria, the Associated Press reported.
Mohammed Salih, a senior fellow at the Wilson Center, says that Iran also figures in the equation. “It’s crucial to recognize that the recent trend of centralization (by Baghdad), aimed at strengthening the state, is diminishing the US role and influence in Iraqi politics,” he wrote. “This is due to the close alignment of ruling groups in Baghdad with Iran’s regional agenda.”
Meanwhile, Amwaj Media, which covers the region, detailed how Iran is particularly worried about Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan, accusing them and their hosts of having ties with Israel. The Kurds deny those accusations.
Regardless, Iran is adding pressure because it needs internal peace in order to fight external foes, the outlet added.
“Facing the prospect of a potential escalation of the intelligence war with Israel, and possible open warfare with ramifications inside its borders, (Iran) is now using an apparent window of opportunity to go after its Kurdish foes.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Killing Legacy
UNITED KINGDOM
British lawmakers voted this week to advance a bill that would strip hereditary aristocrats of their seats in the upper House of Lords, a move that would end a 700-year-old tradition that grants seats based on birthright, amid a renewed push for modernization within the United Kingdom’s legislative system, the BBC reported.
The bill, introduced by the ruling Labour Party, seeks to remove the remaining 92 hereditary peers who hold seats in the unelected upper chamber.
Constitution Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said that the hereditary system is an “outdated and indefensible” remnant, stressing that Parliament should reflect modern Britain. He added that only the UK and Lesotho still incorporate hereditary elements in their legislative systems.
While most hereditary peers were removed in 1999 under then-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration, 92 remained as a compromise. With this new bill, Labour aims to finish what it started more than two decades ago.
The government has hailed the bill as “the largest constitutional reform to the UK Parliament in a quarter of a century.”
The Scottish National Party (SNP) expressed its support for even more radical change, calling for the complete abolition of the House of Lords. SNP lawmaker Pete Wishart condemned the chamber as an “unreformable laughing stock” and referred to it as a “gold-plated Narnia.”
However, other legislators, including Conservative party politicians, opposed the reform, countering that the upper house serves as a valuable check and balance on government power, the Associated Press added.
The bill passed its second reading in the lower House of Commons because of Labour’s majority and will move to the committee stage for further consideration.
Even so, observers noted that the real challenge lies ahead, as the House of Lords itself will consider the bill.
Many hereditary peers, including the Earl of Devon, Charles Courtenay, who described his family’s long history of service, are expected to resist these reforms.
Too Many Voices
QATAR
Qatar will hold a referendum to end elections for the advisory Shura Council, the country’s leader announced this week, likely ending a short-lived experiment with representative government in one of the Gulf’s most politically stable states, the Associated Press reported.
In his annual address to the Shura Council, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani announced there will be a constitutional referendum on the matter, but did not provide a date for the vote.
The referendum would affect the 45-member advisory body that drafts laws, approves budgets and advises the ruler.
Qatar held its first elections for 30 of the legislative body’s seats in 2021, but Sheikh Tamim described these elections as an “experiment” that sparked tribal tensions in a country where governance has long been based on consensus.
The electoral law restricts voting to descendants of Qataris who were citizens in 1930, while excluding some groups, such as members of the Al-Murrah tribe. The exclusions led to sporadic protests and arrests at the time.
The emir stressed that the council is “not a representative parliament in a democratic system” and emphasized Qatar’s unique governance model, Agence France-Presse noted.
Political analysts suggested that returning to appointed council members could reduce tribal tensions by ensuring representation for major tribes while giving the ruling family more control.
Others said that Qatar’s retreat from elected governance reflects a broader regional trend.
In May, Kuwait’s emir dissolved parliament, an absence that is to last as long as four years, reducing the Gulf’s most vocal legislative body to an advisory role. Gulf states – predominately ruled by hereditary monarchs with vast oil and gas wealth – have largely scaled back on democratic reforms introduced under US influence after the Sept. 11 attacks and amid the 2011 Arab Spring protests.
The United States has not commented on Qatar’s announcement. Washington maintains strong ties with Qatar, which is home to the massive Al-Udeid Air Base that hosts the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command.
Prime Suspect
BRAZIL
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro conspired to overturn the 2022 election results following his defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and aimed to prevent his successor’s inauguration through a coordinated coup attempt, a probe by Brazil’s federal police found, Reuters reported.
The probe – initially expected to wrap up in August – was extended as police reviewed evidence from a related investigation into alleged illegal surveillance activities targeting Bolsonaro’s political rivals during his presidency.
Reuters reported the conclusions of the federal police’s investigation, which they are expected to announce next month during its submission to the Supreme Court.
A source with direct knowledge of the investigation told the newswire that the new findings show that Bolsonaro and his allies devised a scheme to halt the democratic transition, with the former president allegedly involved in editing a draft decree intended to nullify the election results.
The source added that the pro-Bolsonaro riots in the capital on Jan. 8, 2023, which saw protesters invading and ransacking Brazil’s main governmental offices just one week after Lula took office, was viewed as the “last breath of an attempted coup.”
Bolsonaro’s legal team has not commented on the latest findings. The former populist president – currently embroiled in a series of legal challenges – has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
In a separate development, Brazil’s top electoral court has barred Bolsonaro from holding public office until 2030 after finding him guilty of abuse of power and misusing the media to spread unfounded claims about the country’s electronic voting system.
Bolsonaro is also under investigation for other alleged criminal acts, including tampering with Covid-19 vaccination records and embezzling Saudi jewels.
DISCOVERIES
Drip and Drop
Those who visit the Konya Basin in Central Turkey, near attractions like the stunning Lake Tuz and the city of Konya, may notice the earth will quite literally be melting under them.
Beneath the Konya Basin, a large, tectonically active depression in the region, the Earth’s crust is sinking into the mantle, pulling the surface of the basin and the plateau that surrounds it downwards, according to Science Alert.
Crinkles and divots in the Earth’s surface on Turkey’s Central Anatolian Plateau have led geoscientists to a discovery of a class of plate tectonics, causing them to rethink all of what was known about seismic activity in the region and beyond.
This new-found phenomenon that occurs when Earth’s lower crust heats up, becoming gooey and dripping into the planetary interior, has been coined “lithospheric dripping.”
Geophysicist Julia Andersen from the research team at the University of Toronto first noticed this oddity when looking at satellite images from the Konya Basin. “We observed a circular feature at the Konya Basin where the crust is subsiding or the basin is deepening,” Andersen explained in a statement.
This observed seismic anomaly prompted the research team to look deeper into the geophysical data of the site and identified high-density material below the surface, a sign of mantle lithospheric drip.
Andersen detailed more about the process of the phenomenon, explaining that, “When the lower portion of Earth’s rocky crust is heated to a certain temperature, it starts to go a little gooey. Then, like honey or syrup, it slowly oozes downward … As this drop descends, it pulls the planetary crust down with it. This creates a depression, or basin.”
Lithospheric dripping was only discovered recently on Earth, at the Arizaro Basin under the Central Andes in Argentina, by the same team of geoscientists, reported Earth.com.
The Konya basin, sinking 0.8 inches per year in the Central Anatolian Plateau, which has been rising for millions of years, is suspected to be the second tectonic event after a larger initial drip that caused the plateau to rise, researchers say.
The researchers set up a lab experiment to prove their theory, replicating the Earth’s mantle and crust. The findings from the experiment indicated that “major tectonic events are linked, with one lithospheric drip potentially triggering a host of further activity deep in the planetary interior,” according to Andersen.
The results supported the team’s theory that lithospheric dripping is a multi-stage process, explaining the plateau rising and the basin sinking both occurring at the same time.