UNAMI chief warns against further delay in Kurdistan Region elections

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - United Nations Special Representative for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on Thursday warned that further postponement in the Kurdistan Region’s general elections could be “detrimental to public trust."

The Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections are set to be held on November 18. The Region was set to hold the elections last year, but the vote was postponed due to continued disagreements between key political parties over the current electoral law and the electoral commission.

Briefing the UN Security Council on Thursday about the latest developments in Iraq, Hennis-Plasschaert, who is also the head of United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), called on the Kurdish political parties to resolve their issues to pave the way for the elections to be held on time. 

“At this stage, I can only express hope that parties will now step up, bridge differences, and work in the interests of all peoples. One glance at the history or geography of the Kurdistan Region reinforces just how urgent the need for sustainable solutions is,” she said. 

“Also, the Region's parliamentary elections are long overdue... Agreements on outstanding electoral issues must urgently be found. Another postponement would be detrimental to public trust,” added the UNAMI chief. 

Rewaz Fayaq, speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament, said late last month that the Region’s political parties have resolved all their disputes related to upcoming elections, except for the seats dedicated to minorities in the legislature.

The Kurdistan Parliament consists of 111 seats, with 11 of them dedicated to minorities under a quota system. Turkmens have five seats, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs have five, and Armenians one. Some political parties have claimed that these seats are exploited by the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is accused of directing security forces to vote for the minority candidates it favours. The KDP has denied the claims.  

The United Nations has reportedly suggested to the PUK and KDP that two minority seats, for Turkmens and Christians, be given to Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) stronghold Sulaimani province.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani has held several meetings with political parties to make sure the elections would not be further postponed. 

The UNAMI chief on Thursday commended President Barzani’s efforts. 

“Repeated efforts by the Region’s President, as well as others, to have the parties return to the negotiation table, and a recent meeting between the Region’s Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, led, at last, to some good news,” she said. 

On Monday PM Masrour Barzani and Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, who is a senior member, had their first public meeting in over six months. They agreed to resolve ongoing issues through dialogue and cooperation between all parties.

Despite working together in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the two parties have established control over different parts of the Region, often referred to as the “Yellow Zone,” Erbil and Duhok provinces where the KDP dominates, and the “Green Zone,” Sulaimani and Halabja provinces where the PUK rules.

KDP and PUK met on Tuesday, agreeing on the need to conduct the Region’s elections on time later this year. 

“Disagreements between the two ruling parties in recent months drove the Region close to the brink. It was for good reasons that the political situation was described (by many) as increasingly reckless and irresponsible. While it is our firm belief that outstanding fiscal, administrative, security and electoral disagreements could have been addressed months ago, the will to compromise was - for far too long - glaringly absent,” said the UN representative to Iraq during her briefing. 

Diplomatic missions in the Kurdistan Region have welcomed the recent de-escalation of KDP-PUK tensions, while stressing the need to cooperate to hold “fair and free” elections on time.