Political Obstacles to Political Reform in the Kurdistan Region – Iraq

After the uprising of the spring of 1991, the people of Kurdistan were able, due to the political, strategic, economic and military changes that occurred at the local, regional and international levels, to have a legal and legitimate entity (the Kurdistan Region). They sought to establish the principles of democratic rule and secure a kind of legitimacy for themselves; especially after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003, when the Kurdistan Region was recognized as a constitutional and legal entity in the Iraqi Constitution of 2005. There was a great political, economic and diplomatic opportunity for the region to take steps to consolidate its experience in governance that would achieve development and progress. However, in this process of construction and development, the authority and political institutions in the region faced enormous political stumbling, and political and economic corruption spread widely. Hence, the issue of political reform within official and unofficial institutions became the main demand and discourse of both the ruling elite and the political opposition. This research focuses on two main topics, namely the theoretical and analytical description of the issue of political reform, and then the efforts, projects and laws related to the issue of political reform in the Kurdistan Region. Then the research addresses the most important political obstacles to political reform in the region, which prevented the achievement of the desired political reform