The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has opened the door for political parties, coalitions and independent candidates to register themselves for the upcoming June 10 Kurdistan Region elections.
Based on the instructions of the electoral commission, political parties, independent candidates and coalitions have until March 14 to complete the registration.
Amanj Aziz, head of IHEC’s Sulaimani office, told Rudaw that according to the division of the Kurdistan Region into four constituencies, a new element in this election, Sulaimani will be allocated the most number of seats, 38, followed by Erbil, which will be allocated 34, and Duhok 25. Halabja will only get three seats.
Unlike in the previous election, which was conducted as a single constituency election, the upcoming election will see the Kurdistan Region divided into four constituencies and voters will only be able to vote for candidates running in their own. Moreover, following the Iraqi Federal Court’s February ruling, the Kurdistan Region's parliament will for the first time consist of 100 seats, as opposed to the 111 seats that characterized it since 2005.
The Baghdad-based court ruled that the 11 quota seats in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament reserved for ethnic and religious minorities were “unconstitutional,” effectively rejecting the legitimacy of the seats. The first Kurdish parliament allocated five seats for the Christians, and later added an extra five seats for Turkmens and one seat for Armenians.
Aziz highlighted that candidates must meet several criteria in order to run for office, including being citizens of the Kurdistan Region, being registered residents of the constituencies they intend to run for, and being at least 25 years old on the day of the election. He added that people from the disputed areas outside of the Kurdistan Region are not allowed to take part in the election, he said.
Rudaw understands that the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), an opposition party, has started to hold talks with other opposition parties to explore the possibility of forming a coalition.
Rudaw has also obtained an official paper issued by IHEC proving that Lahur Talabany, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's (PUK) former co-chair, has registered a party named the People's Front.
Although Halabja is officially recognized as an independent province on its own by the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Iraqi government has yet to vote on ascension to province.
The Iraqi cabinet in March last year approved a bill to make Halabja a province, in recognition of the 35th anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s brutal chemical attack against the city. For the decision to be finalized, the Iraqi legislature needs to pass the bill through a vote but the session continues to be postponed.
Aziz said the Sulaimani election office will run the election in Halabja unless otherwise stated by IHEC.
Kurdistan Region's election was initially scheduled for October 2022, but was later postponed to November the following year and then February 2024 due to disagreements between the political parties over the election law.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday announced that the new date for the elections was June 10, a decision that was warmly welcomed by foreign missions in Baghdad and Erbil.
Voters have until March 10 to register for voting. Jumana al-Ghalai, the spokesperson for IHEC told Rudaw that as of February 28, just over 76,000 people had registered for the first time, most of them based in Erbil.
