Kurdistan parliament to convene to discuss Kirkuk, Hashd, elections
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan parliament will convene on Tuesday to discuss critical topics as the Region reels from a week of bitter losses and accusations of blame.
The parliament will address “the situation of Kirkuk, the coming of the Hashd al-Shaabi, and the appointment the secretary of the parliament,” Omed Khoshnaw, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) faction in the Kurdistan parliament, told Rudaw.
The agenda will also include elections, Khoshnaw added.
Iraqi forces and the Hashd al-Shaabi took over disputed areas of Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Diyala provinces last week, including the city of Kirkuk. In the wake of what Kurds have called an “incursion,” leaders have pointed the finger of blame at each other.
Parliament was scheduled to sit last Wednesday but the session was postponed because of disagreements among the parties on delaying the elections, according to information obtained by Rudaw.
Election preparations were halted two weeks before the Kurdistan Region was to go to the polls. A council of the High Independent Electoral and Referendum Commission “decided to halt all the preparations for the elections of November 1, 2017, because of not having candidates at the specified time and current new developments.”
The commission said it was waiting for the Kurdistan parliament to make a decision on the matter.
Presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held simultaneously on November 1.
The post of the parliament secretary has been vacant since Fakhradin Qadir, from the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), resigned on September 30.
Gorran, the second-largest party in the parliament, has called on the Kurdistan Regional Government to be dissolved and an interim government be established to prepare for elections and lead talks with Baghdad. Gorran has not attended parliamentary sessions since the legislature was reactivated in September after being shut for two years amid a political row between Gorran and the ruling KDP.
The parliament will address “the situation of Kirkuk, the coming of the Hashd al-Shaabi, and the appointment the secretary of the parliament,” Omed Khoshnaw, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) faction in the Kurdistan parliament, told Rudaw.
The agenda will also include elections, Khoshnaw added.
Iraqi forces and the Hashd al-Shaabi took over disputed areas of Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Diyala provinces last week, including the city of Kirkuk. In the wake of what Kurds have called an “incursion,” leaders have pointed the finger of blame at each other.
Parliament was scheduled to sit last Wednesday but the session was postponed because of disagreements among the parties on delaying the elections, according to information obtained by Rudaw.
Election preparations were halted two weeks before the Kurdistan Region was to go to the polls. A council of the High Independent Electoral and Referendum Commission “decided to halt all the preparations for the elections of November 1, 2017, because of not having candidates at the specified time and current new developments.”
The commission said it was waiting for the Kurdistan parliament to make a decision on the matter.
Presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held simultaneously on November 1.
The post of the parliament secretary has been vacant since Fakhradin Qadir, from the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), resigned on September 30.
Gorran, the second-largest party in the parliament, has called on the Kurdistan Regional Government to be dissolved and an interim government be established to prepare for elections and lead talks with Baghdad. Gorran has not attended parliamentary sessions since the legislature was reactivated in September after being shut for two years amid a political row between Gorran and the ruling KDP.