ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's electoral body will set up polling stations in provinces under the control of Baghdad for people from the Kurdistan Region to cast their vote in the Region's upcoming parliamentary elections in October, an official from the commission said on Sunday.
Imad Jamil, media head for Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told Rudaw that the body will set up 23 polling stations across the central and southern provinces of the country during the Kurdistan Region's parliamentary elections set for October 20.
The polling stations will be set in Baghdad, Nineveh, Salahaddin, Kirkuk, Diyala, Anbar, and Wasit provinces. Baghdad will have the most stations set up with ten, followed by Nineveh with six. Two stations will be set in Kirkuk and Salahaddin, Diyala, Anbar, and Wasit will each get one.
Last month, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani set October 20 as the date for the vote, two years after its originally scheduled date.
The election process has been marred in difficulties, with interference from Baghdad fueling tensions between the Kurdistan Region’s parties - particularly differences between the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
A major ruling by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court in February labeled the 11 quota seats in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament reserved for ethnic and religious minorities as “unconstitutional”, striking down their legitimacy and rendering chances of minorities to obtain representation almost impossible. The lawsuit that led to the ruling was filed by the PUK and a Sulaimani-based Christian party.
But the KDP lashed out in response and announced that they would boycott the vote, scheduled for June 10 at the time, expressing concern about multiple factors - foremost of which was the minority quota being taken by Baghdad. Several Christian and Turkmen parties joined the boycott.
However, another Baghdad decision in May allocated five seats for minorities across the Kurdistan Region’s provinces - a crucial KDP demand - leading to the end of their boycott and clearing a major obstacle for the vote.
