“The Kurdistan Democratic Party is a major force in the political arena and without it there can be no elections, this is a fact that all political parties in Baghdad have realized,” Shakhawan Abdullah, second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, told journalists in Baghdad.
The Kurdistan Region is set to hold parliamentary elections on June 10, with a nearly two-year delay, after multiple postponements caused by disputes between political parties and pending legal cases related to the electoral process.
Although the majority of the Kurdistan Region’s political parties, including KDP’s power-sharer in government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), announced their participation in the vote, the KDP is standing by its choice to boycott the election, despite numerous calls to reverse this decision. The party claims the federal court’s ruling on the minority seats and the division of the Region into four constituencies are “unconstitutional.”
“Elections are held when all the political parties participate,” Abdullah said, insinuating that without KDP, the vote cannot take place while stressing that his party’s concerns are “serious and related to the people of Kurdistan.”
According to Abdullah, some of the concerns include technical issues that would prevent around 400,000 people from participating in the elections.
Abdullah, who is also a member of the KDP central committee, said his party and the country’s electoral commission are holding talks “to take the concerns seriously.”
The KDP is the largest Kurdish party and the dominant force in both Erbil and Duhok provinces. Its withdrawal from the election has led many pundits to speculate that the vote may not be held as scheduled in June.
Despite the KDP’s boycott, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) continues preparations for the general elections. Last week the commission announced that two alliances, ten political parties, and 57 independent candidates registered for the vote.
