Farsat A. Abdulla
Secretary of the Assembly

Consequent to announcing Iraqi Kurdistan a safe haven in the wake of Gulf War II, under the Iraqi central government’s withdrawal of its administration from the region with the intention to create an administrative and legislative vacuum in the region, the Kurdistan Front, comprising eight parties stepped in to fill the vacuum and becoming the de facto authority. The Front decided later to hold direct general elections in order to establish the parliament.

The entity established in Iraqi Kurdistan now represents a specific polity in the constitutional and international sense. There exist the three powers; the legislative represented by the Parliament, the executive represented by the Regional Council of Ministers, and an independent Judiciary, altogether

Forming the local administration of Iraqi Kurdistan region. In practice, the three powers. Exercise their functions independently from the central government, which withdrew from the region abandoning its commitments towards the people of Kurdistan. However, Iraqi Kurdistan did not announce independence from Iraq, but Iraqi Kurdistan National Assembly proclaimed the area a region within the framework of a federal democratic Iraq. This step is regarded as an exercise of its legitimate right in self determination on the one hand, and it is a demonstration of its constitutional adaptation to the existing political system in Kurdistan for the present and future, a system embodied by a parliamentary institution based upon the separation of power and depending on the principle of equality and cooperation.

The coincidence of events that took place in Kurdistan and the crystallization of a political system, concurrent with the establishment of the new world order built on the principles of democracy and human rights have revived the hopes of the Kurds that after more than seven thousand years, the moment is at hand to enjoy their political and civil rights in their homeland for which the blood of thousands of martyrs has been shed. This age of democracy, which our people believe in and have, striven for, will hopefully usher in Iraq as a whole, and in further realization of our people's national aims.

Today, this people has established a humble experiment of a democratic polity based on the right of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan to take part in the decision making process through representatives elected in free, general and direct elections based on freedom of expression, press and a multi-party system and respect for human rights. We are all hoping that the international democratic community would support, enrich and defend this humble experiment in the service of humanity and justice.