Kurdistan
A man casting his ballot during the Iraqi general vote in Erbil on October 10, 2021. Photo: Bilind T. Abdullah / Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has proposed September 5 as a date to hold the Kurdistan Region's parliamentary elections, days after informing the Region’s presidency of its inability to hold the legislative poll on its previously scheduled date.
“The commission proposes September 5, 2024 as the date to hold the election process (general vote), noting that the operational timetable cannot be extended,” IHEC stated in a letter addressing the Kurdistan Region Presidency on Tuesday.
IHEC Spokesperson Jumana al-Ghalai told Rudaw on last week that the body cannot hold the Kurdistan Region’s long overdue parliamentary polls on its scheduled June 10 date, citing a recent decision by Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council which allocated five seats for minorities who used to have 11 in past elections.
The Supreme Judicial Council stated that the electoral commission is required to allocate five seats to minorities in the Kurdistan Region's parliament, one seat in Duhok province, two seats in Erbil province, and two seats in Sulaimani province.
The ruling “will impact the plans of the commission to hold the elections on June 10, 2024. Therefore, the commission cannot hold the elections on this date,” Ghalai said.
Kurdistan Region’s general elections, initially scheduled for October 2022, have been postponed several times due to disagreements among political parties over the election law and the dissolution of the Kurdish legislature by the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court.
In February, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled that the 11 quota seats in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament reserved for ethnic and religious minorities were unconstitutional, effectively eliminating the seats.
The ruling was strongly objected to by the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the party announced that it would not be partaking in the upcoming elections in protest. Most Christian and Turkmen political parties joined the KDP in boycotting the elections, demanding the restoration of the quota seats.
The Iraqi parliament last week voted to extend the term of the electoral commission for another six months, nearly two months before the end of its current term.
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