The political struggle in Nineveh has intensified significantly in recent days, with political blocs exchanging accusations after the provincial council voted last week on exemptions and appointments that included 20 heads of administrative units. These votes were cast by "Nineveh's Future," which holds 16 of the 29 seats in the Nineveh Council. Meanwhile, "Nineveh Unified" and the Democratic Party boycotted 13 seats collectively during the voting session, announcing their suspension of membership and accusing the session of being illegal.
**Leaked Documents Inquire About "Salah"**
Amid the political conflicts and tools used in the battles are leaked documents revealing administrative orders issued by the provincial council. The documents include an administrative order for the dismissal of the administrative district chief of Al-Hamdaniya, Issam Behnam Maty, and the election of Samer Youssef Habib as his replacement. The document, obtained by Shafaq News Agency, indicated at the bottom that the reasons for dismissing Issam Behnam were due to exceeding the legal term for holding the position by Salah Hassan Ali.
Another leaked document, which also bore the signature of the chairman of the Nineveh Council, Ahmed Al-Hasoud, mandated the dismissal of the director of Al-Tal sub-district, Mohammed Kanaan, and the election of Tarek Dark as his substitute. It then repeated the same initial error by stating that the reason was again the exceeding of the legal term by Salah Hassan Ali.
These two leaked documents sparked considerable activity on social media in Nineveh, with residents of Mosul expressing their sarcasm and mockery over the low level of administrative communication from the provincial council. Social media users questioned in jest, "Who is Salah?" and what connection he had to be included in both documents.
**Who is Salah?**
Salah Hassan Ali is the director of Al-Qayyarah district and also holds the position of acting governor of Mosul, and he is also among those listed for dismissal from his position as director of Al-Qayyarah district. However, his name appeared in other unrelated documents.
Former Nineveh Governor Atheel Al-Nujaifi commented on his personal Facebook page, saying: “A piece of advice to the chairman of the Nineveh Provincial Council, replace your legal and administrative team.. Nineveh is greater than this level of drafting legal decisions and administrative letters,” leaving exclamatory marks on the post.
In response to the recent criticisms, the Nineveh Future Alliance issued a statement saying, "We have not seen an media attack on the heads of the previous provincial council over the past years, despite some shortcomings and the existence of arrest warrants against others due to several corruption files."
The statement from the alliance, to which the chairman of the Nineveh Provincial Council belongs, added, "When the council chairmanship is handed to a personality from the original sons of Nineveh known for their integrity and wisdom, leading the Provincial Council in the right direction, activating its supervisory and legislative role, and correcting the course of the local government, media attacks are waged against them to mislead public opinion from parties that do not like the reconstruction of Nineveh and the removal of corrupt figures from their executive positions.”
The alliance threatened in its statement to "take legal action against the pages that attempt to undermine the presidency of the Nineveh Provincial Council."
