KDP elects 51-member leadership, including one Christian – a Yezidi.

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The 13th Conference of Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), held in Arbil last week, has elected 51 leading members, replacing its Central Committee, among them women and young men, along with one Christain and a Yezidi, for the first time, a KDP source told IraqiNews.com news agency on Saturday. “KDP‘s 13th conference has elected on Thursday 51 members for its Central Council, along with 9 reserve members,” the source said, adding that a Christian and a Yezidi, five women and several young men, had been among the elected members,” he said. The source stressed that “the Party’s previous central committee had been resolved,” adding that more than 25 members of the new Leading Central Council have been re-elected, among them 5 women, whilst the previous Central Committee had included one women only, called Shirin Amidy. “The new Council is to elect a 15-member Politburea for the Party,” adding that the elections had taken place “through a new electronic system, results of which had appeared after one hour of the beginning of the elections.” The KDP‘s 13th conference began its works in Arbil, the center of north Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, last Saturday, 11/12/2010, re-electing Kurdistan President, Massoud Barzani, as its Chairman and Nichervan Barzani as its Deputy-Chairman. The KDP had held its 1st conference in Baghdad on August 16, 1946, which selected Late Mulla Mustapha Barzani, Massoud Barzani‘s father, as Chairman of the Party. The Party’s Media Official, Ari Hersin, told IraqiNews.com news agency that the “conference would make a radical change in its fraemwork, due to fact that its current framework “does not cope with the current epoch,” along with the revision of the percentage of women and youth in the Party’s new leadership.” SKH 33