Iraq’s Kaka’i minority demand seats in parliament
ERBIL, KRG, Iraq (North Press) – On Tuesday, Farhad Kaka’i, an activist and university professor, said that the Iraqi government pays little attention to the rights of the Kaka’i community.
The Kaka’i are “a neglected minority in Iraq despite its historical heritage,” as described by one of the jurists from that community, where there is no governmental or parliamentary representation for them despite their frequent demands.
Kaki attributes Baghdad’s position to the absence of an international Kaka’i lobby. “The Iraqi government is dealing with the lobbies, so you find it gives some rights to Yazidis and Christians because they have international lobbies,” he explains.
The professor at one of Erbil’s private universities told North Press that Kaka’i are entitled to four or five seats in the Iraqi parliament.
According to statistics of the United Nations and the European Union, the population of Kaka’i in Iraq is 200,000, almost half of which are eligible to vote.
The activist does not deny that the Kaka’i are distributed geographically in four governorates, and “their voices are dispersed, but this does not justify the absence of a quota for them in the Iraqi parliament.”
Two figures from the sect have run for the early Iraqi parliamentary elections on party lists.
Kaka’i concluded: “The parties do not pay attention to the representation of the Kaka’i, and the arrival of one of the two candidates to parliament is not a solution to our cause, but it is better than not being represented at all.”