PM:08:59:03/08/2022
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SULAIMANI — The President of the New Generation
Movement, Shaswar Abdulwahid, said on Wednesday (August 3) citizens of the
Kurdistan Region will take to the streets on Saturday and make a show of force
for the authorities in a peaceful protest to demand their rights.
Abdulwahid spoke on NRT’s Tawtwe program on
Wednesday evening, where he said Saturday’s planned protest was not just the New
Generation’s but the people’s protest. He called on the public to take action
instead of privately complaining, in order to see the authorities’ response.
The New Generation president said holding
protests will achieve results as was shown in the demonstrations held in 2020
when the government began to distribute salaries and the oil prices decreased.
Several protests have been held in the
Kurdistan Region over the past three years by employees in the public sector,
local traders, university teachers and students, in order to show their dissatisfaction
with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) mishandling of salaries.
The Kurdistan Region has been suffering
from different crises over the past several years, most recently the lack of
drinking water in Erbil. The NGM has been distributing drinking water by tank in
Erbil’s neighborhoods for months now.
Abdulwahid said the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) are at their lowest
point and are referred to internationally as mafias.
He also predicted the KRG authorities would
not hold parliamentary elections in October. The KRG’s official positions and
ministries are mostly held by members of the two ruling parties, the KDP and
PUK.
A council set up to organize the demonstrations
planned for Saturday announced in a press conference a list of the demands over
which they are protesting.
The demands were as follows:
1.Citizens
must receive salaries on the 25th of each month.
2.The
promotion of employees must resume.
3.The price
of oil and gas must be decreased.
4.Elections
must be held in the Kurdistan Region.
5.Job opportunities
must be provided for university graduates.
6.Retirees
must be respected and there must be a new system for them to receive their
pensions.
7.Issues
regarding the contracts of teachers, employees and health-care workers must be
dealt with.
8.Tax issues
must be resolved.
9.Markets must
be found for farmers’ produce.
(NRT Digital Media)