Dana Ahmed Majid elected general coordinator of Gorran

KIRKUK,— Dana Ahmed Majid was elected as General Coordinator of the Gorran (Change) Movement during a national conference held Monday in the city of Kirkuk.

He won the position by majority vote at the gathering, which brought together members of the movement from different areas.

After his election, Dana Ahmed Majid said in a statement that the conference was completed without problems.

He said no tensions occurred during the meeting and described the movement as united. “The conference was conducted successfully, and in the future Gorran is one direction and is moving toward success,” he said.

He also stated that differences of opinion were expressed during the conference but were resolved through voting. “No tensions occurred at the conference. Everyone has the right to have a different opinion, and the matter was decided by majority and minority,” he added.

The Gorran Movement has seen a decline in electoral support in recent years. The party won five seats in the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary election. It did not secure any seats in the October 2021 Iraq parliamentary election. In 2024, it won one seat in the Kurdistan parliamentary election.

On the same day, the movement held its general conference in Kirkuk and elected not only a General Coordinator but also 55 members to its National Council.

However, the process faced opposition from the Zargata Bloc within the movement. Members of the bloc left the conference hall during the voting and later rejected the outcome. In a statement, the bloc said, “There is no General Coordinator; there is only a KurdSat wing coordinator.”

Rêband Ahmed, a member of the founding congress of the Gorran Movement, told Rudaw Media Network on Monday said the KurdSat bloc received 491 votes, while the opposing Zargata Bloc had 291 votes before withdrawing from the session.

During the voting process, the Zargata Bloc left the hall. Abdulwahab Ahmed, the Erbil Relations Officer of the Gorran Movement from the Zargata Bloc, told Rudaw that Dana Ahmed Majid should be regarded only as the KurdSat wing coordinator, not the General Coordinator.

“We do not recognize him as General Coordinator in any way,” he said. He added that the KurdSat wing elected him with applause and without the legal quorum of attendees.

A Gorran official from the Zargata Bloc also raised legal concerns. He said Dana Ahmed Majid had previously served as Governor of Sulaimani and that he has a legal case against him and was sentenced in absentia.

He said this prevents him from serving as General Coordinator under the law.

Abdulwahab Ahmed said the Zargata Bloc rejects the entire process and considers it illegal.

He stated that the bloc has evidence that a ruling party cooperated during the conference and that the Commission showed favoritism.

He added that several members of local branches and committees of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan participated in the conference.

For the conference, 2,132 people who had registered in Baghdad in 2017 to renew the movement’s license were eligible to attend. However, some were no longer members of the party or were absent for other reasons.

Before the conference, disputes had taken place between the two blocs of the Gorran Movement. On Monday, both blocs entered the congress hall together despite earlier disagreements.

The Zargata Bloc opposed the election of a General Coordinator during the conference. The KurdSat Bloc said electing a General Coordinator was required by the Commission.

In 2025, both blocs held separate and joint conferences, but neither secured approval from the Commission or official ownership of the movement.

On May 24, 2025, the Gorran Movement held a joint conference in Sulaimani. The meeting ended without results because of disagreements and was not approved by the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq.

Earlier, on April 5, 2025, the Zargata Bloc held a general conference. The other bloc held its own conference on April 26, 2025. Neither meeting received approval from the Commission.

Under Gorran’s internal regulations, the movement includes the Executive Body, the National Council, the General Council, offices, parliamentary and provincial council factions, district councils and the movement’s team in government.

The National Council, which includes members of the Executive Body and the Coordinator, is the highest decision making authority in the movement.

In the past, Gorran had strong support in Kurdistan region. The movement emerged in the 2009 regional elections as a rival to the two main Kurdish ruling parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. It accused both parties of corruption.

The movement was led by Nawshirwan Mustafa, a former senior leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan who had served as deputy to Jalal Talabani until 2007. Mustafa died in 2017.

In 2017, senior political analyst Rizgar Xoshnaw wrote an article titled “The Death of Gorran Party.” In the article, he said the party was in total disarray and predicted it was slowly declining.

He said he had warned members that if the party continued on its path, it would lose support. He added that many members were pessimistic about the party’s future, especially after the election of new leadership in 2017.

(With files from Rudaw | Agencies)