ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – After reports of voter fraud in the Iraqi election, five Kurdish parties have called on the Kurdistan Region’s election to not use the controversial electronic system in KRG elections. They vow they won’t remain silent on matters that hinder democracy in the Kurdistan Region.
September 30 has been proposed as a date for KRG parliamentary elections.
Gorran, Komal, the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (IKM) wrote to the Kurdistan Region’s electoral commission to address issues they want to see resolved ahead of the vote “for the purpose of regaining people’s trust and our keenness for the democratic process of Kurdistan.”
“Under no condition should electronic smart ballots or scanners be used for counting the votes in elections because the Iraqi parliamentary election of May 12 was the worse election in the history of the new Iraq and Kurdistan,” reads the letter from the five parties.
They argue that the electronic system, for which Iraq paid over a hundred million dollars, is a “dangerous method” for fraud. They also said the region does not have sufficient know-how to use the devices.
Iraq touted its electronic voting system as a sure-fire way to eliminate voter fraud, but parties from across the board complained of manipulation of the results and lost or stolen votes.
The Iraqi electoral commission has so far declined to conduct a manual recount.
The five Kurdish parties agreed that although there were problems with manual counting in previous KRG elections, they said it was better than the electronic counting. They proposed that the election commission instead find and fix weaknesses in the manual counting in order to address fraud.
The parties also want the voter record cleaned of duplicate names and those of the dead, IDPs, and illegal voters.
Kurdistan’s electoral commission has previously revealed that it purged the voter list of the names of thousands of deceased voters.
The five want to meet with the electoral commission before preparations begin for the elections and said are open to anything that helps develop Kurdistan’s democratic processes.
“We will undertake all legal and civil pressure, and we won’t remain silent on any act or position that will hurt the electoral and democratic process in Kurdistan,” the parties vowed.
The KRG electoral commission confirmed they have received the letter dated May 21. The body is reviewing the options, a spokesperson said in a press conference, and the council will decide the best voting mechanism for the September election.
The five parties, joined by the Kurdistan Communist Party, are contemplating boycotting Iraq’s political process in protest of reported voter fraud. They have asked for a complete re-do of elections in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories.
September 30 has been proposed as a date for KRG parliamentary elections.
Gorran, Komal, the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (IKM) wrote to the Kurdistan Region’s electoral commission to address issues they want to see resolved ahead of the vote “for the purpose of regaining people’s trust and our keenness for the democratic process of Kurdistan.”
“Under no condition should electronic smart ballots or scanners be used for counting the votes in elections because the Iraqi parliamentary election of May 12 was the worse election in the history of the new Iraq and Kurdistan,” reads the letter from the five parties.
They argue that the electronic system, for which Iraq paid over a hundred million dollars, is a “dangerous method” for fraud. They also said the region does not have sufficient know-how to use the devices.
Iraq touted its electronic voting system as a sure-fire way to eliminate voter fraud, but parties from across the board complained of manipulation of the results and lost or stolen votes.
The Iraqi electoral commission has so far declined to conduct a manual recount.
The five Kurdish parties agreed that although there were problems with manual counting in previous KRG elections, they said it was better than the electronic counting. They proposed that the election commission instead find and fix weaknesses in the manual counting in order to address fraud.
The parties also want the voter record cleaned of duplicate names and those of the dead, IDPs, and illegal voters.
Kurdistan’s electoral commission has previously revealed that it purged the voter list of the names of thousands of deceased voters.
The five want to meet with the electoral commission before preparations begin for the elections and said are open to anything that helps develop Kurdistan’s democratic processes.
“We will undertake all legal and civil pressure, and we won’t remain silent on any act or position that will hurt the electoral and democratic process in Kurdistan,” the parties vowed.
The KRG electoral commission confirmed they have received the letter dated May 21. The body is reviewing the options, a spokesperson said in a press conference, and the council will decide the best voting mechanism for the September election.
The five parties, joined by the Kurdistan Communist Party, are contemplating boycotting Iraq’s political process in protest of reported voter fraud. They have asked for a complete re-do of elections in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment