Home
BAGHDAD - In a new poll conducted by an Iraqi organization in nine Iraqi provinces has shown that about 60% of the respondents fear that the creation of new federal regions will lead to the division of the country.
The polls comes as the country is witnessing hot debates over the Diyala and Salahaddin provincial councils' bids to create federal semi-autonomous regions in their respective provinces.
Diyala and Salahaddin's bids for their autonomous regions created a fuss across the Iraqi political arena over the past few months and continues to be a hot debate.
Mainly Sunni officials in the two provinces said they reacted to Baghdad's mainly Shiite-dominated authorities "repressions" of the minority Sunnis.
Their claim came after Baghdad authorities launched a wave of detentions of Sunni leaders on conspiracy theory and terror charges.
Yet the poll conducted by Tammouz Organizatoin, an local NGO, and the results of which were released on Saturday showed that 60% of respondents from nine Iraqi provinces including those with Sunni majorities said yes to the question: "Do you think the establishment of regions [in Iraq] is the start for division of the country?"
The provicnes include: Baghdad, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahaddin, Thiqar, Basra, Missan, Anbar and Erbil.
About 40% of the respondents supported the idea of more than one federal region - currently on the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north - in Iraq as a way to get rid of Baghdad's strong grip of power.
Vian Sheikh Ali, head of the organization told AKnews that they had observed, while conducting the poll, that some of the respondents did not even realize what "regions" meant.
She noticed "the ignorance of the Iraqi citizen and their lack of knowledge about the meaning of a region or federalism"
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
The polls comes as the country is witnessing hot debates over the Diyala and Salahaddin provincial councils' bids to create federal semi-autonomous regions in their respective provinces.
Diyala and Salahaddin's bids for their autonomous regions created a fuss across the Iraqi political arena over the past few months and continues to be a hot debate.
Mainly Sunni officials in the two provinces said they reacted to Baghdad's mainly Shiite-dominated authorities "repressions" of the minority Sunnis.
Their claim came after Baghdad authorities launched a wave of detentions of Sunni leaders on conspiracy theory and terror charges.
Yet the poll conducted by Tammouz Organizatoin, an local NGO, and the results of which were released on Saturday showed that 60% of respondents from nine Iraqi provinces including those with Sunni majorities said yes to the question: "Do you think the establishment of regions [in Iraq] is the start for division of the country?"
The provicnes include: Baghdad, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahaddin, Thiqar, Basra, Missan, Anbar and Erbil.
About 40% of the respondents supported the idea of more than one federal region - currently on the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north - in Iraq as a way to get rid of Baghdad's strong grip of power.
Vian Sheikh Ali, head of the organization told AKnews that they had observed, while conducting the poll, that some of the respondents did not even realize what "regions" meant.
She noticed "the ignorance of the Iraqi citizen and their lack of knowledge about the meaning of a region or federalism"
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
