“When it comes to registering coalitions, we have so far only been contacted [by parties] to express their willingness, but no party has visited us to officially register a coalition,” Farhad Asaad Shetnayi, head of the political office at the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission’s (IHEC) Erbil branch, said during a press conference.
The IHEC on March 5 opened the door for political parties, coalitions and independent candidates to register themselves for the upcoming polls. The deadline to register is Thursday. In the 2018 vote, three coalitions were registered.
The June 10 election will be unique in Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary history, with fewer seats in the legislature, a new constituency system, and the poll administered by the federal commission for the first time due to disagreements between the main Kurdish parties that resulted in the failure to reactivate the regional electoral body.
At least 29 independent candidates have so far submitted their names, according to Shetnayi who added that all of them have met the requirements to run.
Registration of candidates will start on Wednesday and end on March 22.
Voter registration came to a close on Sunday with nearly 57,000 newly 18-year-old voters across the Kurdistan Region completing the biometric process to participate in the poll.
Around 15,000 first-time voters born in 2006 in Erbil have registered for the polls, according to Botan Sherko, technical head of the IHEC’s Erbil branch. In Duhok, around 30,000 people born in 2006 have completed the biometric registration, and nearly 12,000 have registered in Sulaimani, according to officials from the IHEC branches in both provinces.
Sherko estimated that nearly 80 percent of the Kurdish capital’s eligible population have completed the biometric registration and can cast a ballot, with nearly 55,000 undergoing the process for the first time. Around 84 percent of eligible voters have registered in Duhok, according to Khalid Abas, head of the IHEC’s Duhok branch.
Unlike in previous elections, which followed a single constituency system, the June vote will see the Kurdistan Region divided into four constituencies. Sulaimani will have the most number of seats with 38, followed by Erbil with 34, Duhok with 25, and Halabja with three.
The June elections will also be the first time parties will be competing for 100 seats in the parliament, as opposed to 111, following the February ruling from the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court that eliminated the 11 quota seats reserved for ethnic and religious minorities. Minority candidates will have to compete for the general seats. A Turkmen political leader has called on Turkmen parties to unite under one list in order to increase their chances of securing a seat.
The election is happening about a year and a half late. It was initially scheduled for October 2022, but was repeatedly postponed because of disagreements between the political parties and court cases in Baghdad.
