Kurdistan
A street in the Kurdistan Region's capital city of Erbil during Iraq's parliamentary election campaign period in October 2021. File photo: Bilind T. Abdullah/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s electoral commission has set Wednesday as the start of the campaigning period for the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections, it announced in a press conference.
“We have decided for September 25 to be the first date of the election campaign. It will begin tonight after 12:00 am and continue until 12:00 am on October 15,” Omed Ahmed, head of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), said in a press conference in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Ahmed said that the commission has “approved the list of candidates, coalitions, and political parties” participating in the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for October 20.
A total of 1,191 candidates are vying for the 100-seat Kurdistan parliament, according to IHEC. That number includes 823 men, 368 women, and 38 candidates from minority communities.
“We call on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and all ministries to assist the commission in the success of its efforts to hold fair elections,” Ahmed said.
Nearly 2.9 million people are eligible to vote, including around 215,000 early voters. There will be 1,400 polling stations, including locations in the disputed areas and most Iraqi provinces, for eligible voters.
Early voting for security forces and internally displaced persons (IDPs) is scheduled for October 18, while the general vote will take place on October 20.
The electoral process has faced numerous challenges, with interference from Baghdad exacerbating tensions between the Kurdistan Region’s political parties, particularly between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The Kurdistan Region last held elections in 2018. The upcoming elections were initially scheduled for 2022, but have been delayed several times.
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