Shafaq News / The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan renewed its criticism of the current Kirkuk administration, accusing it of working as a "chauvinistic" and adopting Saddam Hussein's policy.  

A member of the Union and MP for Kirkuk, Jamal Muhammad Shakour, told Shafaq News agency, "We witnessed the current governor of Kirkuk Rakan Saeed al-Jubouri's Baathist actions again; in excluding, marginalizing and fighting the Kurds for several years without any interference from the federal government."

Shakour said that the governor of Kirkuk is working in a "chauvinist mentality". He is excluding the Kurds from the administrative joints and government responsibilities in Kirkuk and distributing projects unfairly, far from justice and rights guaranteed by the constitution to all Kirkuk components.

He continued, "The current governor was appointed by proxy after the events of October 2017. He raised national problems and tensions by bringing back those who usurped Kurdish lands and re-establishing the demographic transfer scenario practiced by the previous regime in Kirkuk", adding, "he has many files of corruption."

 It is noteworthy that the federal government headed by Haider al-Abadi appointed Rakan Saeed al-Jubouri, a Sunni Arab, as governor of Kirkuk Agency, after dismissing its late governor, Najm al-Din Karim, who is a Kurd, after the events of the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum in the fall of 2017.