Day Twenty Five – Violence

As we move closer to Election Day, and the country is coming out of its state of shock at the competitiveness of these elections, violence is becoming a daily occurrence between supporters of the rival lists. The violence seems to be endemic; there is already an arrest warrant out for the KRG Minister of Defence for using violence against riot police, KNN camera crews, and civilian supporters and there seems to constant clashes between the youth of rival lists. One supporter came onto KNN in a propaganda move by the channel and showed his knife wounds, which were still bleeding as the report was being aired.

However, the violence is even more severe than is being reported on news media. On a visit to Chamchamal and at the beginning of the week I reported an exclusive story that a "Change" list supporter was a victim of a grenade attack, and I expected KNN to report the news as they were on also on the scene. The report was never aired and after asking why it wasn’t I was told by the channel that they were afraid the story would scare the public away from voting "Change" and that it was better not reported.

It is open to argument, how much of the violence has not been reported but one wonders what will happen after the 25th July and whether either side will accept the result? This election seems to be wide open, and with no trustworthy opinion polls to show any party in the lead, this election threatens to be an explosive one in the Kurdish Region.