Gorran

   Known in English as the Change Party, this is the reform party created by Nawshirwan Mustafa in 2009. The new party boldly opposed the corruption and nepotism it charged as being rampant throughout the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its long-governing parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Gorran (Change) advocated fiscal transparency in party, government, and business; a professional civil service; election-law reform; and a large contraction of the public sector. The new party also sought to avoid extreme Kurdish nationalism while cooperating with the federal government in Baghdad according to the Iraqi constitution. Largely at the expense of the PUK, Gorran won almost 24 percent of the vote and 25 seats in the KRG parliamentary elections held on 25 July 2009. Thus, the KRG parliament now had its first real opposition party. Gorran won eight seats in the Iraqi national elections held on 7 March 2010. However, it remained to be seen how this situation would develop.