Diyari Saleh- researcher
The new generation movement-founded by Kurdish businessman Shaswar Abdul Wahid – is one of the significant features of the transformation in the Iraqi and Kurdish political scene. this party has ensured its presence in Sulaimaniyah, trying to present itself there as the main engine of the protest movement, and this played a significant role in establishing broad popular bases that supported its orientations in which it raises the opposition slogan of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Sulaimaniyah.
the results of the early parliamentary elections, which were held in November 2021, have qualified it to play an important role beyond the space the Kurds are moving towards the National Space.
This paper seeks to research the most important policies adopted by the party at the founding stage, spearheaded by the protest movement in Sulaymaniyah, and its role in convincing young people and vulnerable groups to support it, which affected the nature of its electoral results, the nature of its protest approaches that it presents influenced by the visions of the Sadrist movement, and the most important challenges it faces in its political course.
The new generation: vision and ambition
The “new generation Hirak” party was founded as one of the important parties in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2018 by (Shaswar Abdul Wahid), who is characterized as a businessman who has proven his success in many projects. Today, he is trying to use many of these spaces to mix business with political and party work. In this regard, he presents himself as a confident visionary based on a specific project in which he seeks to break the monopoly of power within Kurdistan from traditional parties, and this vision extends for the next two decades.
The new generation usually tries to challenge the authorities in many ways under the pretext of supporting vulnerable groups in society. This may not be an accurate expression of the extent of his physical ability to process files that are a stressful element in the lives of people there. However, this kind of practice may lead many citizens to admire this model and support it despite the traditional parties in the region, for example, he tried to challenge the decision of the authorities there regarding the sale of gasoline to citizens, as he said: “he can provide limited quantities of it at preferential prices of up to (500) Iraqi dinars per liter compared to the prices of the authorities that reach (750) dinars per liter”.
From an early age, Abdul Wahid tried to prove that he was an entrepreneur who was getting closer to the youth in a big way. He was aware of the importance of the crisis suffered by this category in the housing sector, so he tried to work on a group of important housing projects in this regard, including a major project in the city of Sulaimaniyah, as through this project he was able to provide important opportunities for low-income middle-class people to obtain housing with good specifications, and also contributed to changing the non-racial business and politics.
From the very beginning of his political experience, Abdul Wahid paid attention to the importance of the media, so he founded a company (Nalya media and its channel NRT), which was often focused on protest activities for the public in the Kurdistan region and beyond. Therefore, he tried to invest in the media, and use the mistakes of his opponents, in a serious attempt to gain the trust of the street in Baghdad and the cities of the region, especially through reports that focused on highlighting the arbitrary practices that were against that channel, including, for example, accusing it of supporting the legislative protest movement that brought down the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi, which eventually resulted in reprisals accused by various parties, as that channel was among the channels that were attacked and closed its headquarters in the capital Baghdad in the same way as it was treated in the cities of the region.
