ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A total of 53 lawmakers from six different parliamentary blocs have submitted their resignations from the Kurdistan Regional parliament to the legislature’s presidency, nearly a month after Iraq’s top court deemed the body’s self-extension “unconstitutional”.
Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court in late May ruled against the Kurdistan Region’s parliament decision to extend its term by an additional year, declaring that the term of the legislature had ended and that the self-extension was unconstitutional. All decisions and laws issued by the Kurdish parliament after its legal deadline had surpassed were also declared null and void by the Iraqi top court.
Among the resigning lawmakers are all 45 MPs of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the bloc with the highest number of seats in the parliament.
“Today… We have finished our duties in the fifth term of the Kurdistan parliament,” Zana Mala Khalid, head of the KDP bloc in the Kurdish parliament, told reporters during a presser on Monday, adding that they have refused to receive their parliamentary salaries since June 1.
Five Turkmen lawmakers from four different blocs and all three MPs of the National Union Alliance, a Christian bloc, have also submitted their resignations while several other blocs are expected to follow suit following the Eid al-Adha holidays.
“We expect more resignations from the other blocs in the parliament after Eid al-Adha, after which the legal procedures towards retiring them will be followed,” Saman Ahmad, media head of the Kurdish parliament, told Rudaw.
With Kurdish lawmakers having failed to reactivate the regional electoral commission before the self-extension and all decisions from the parliament since declared null by the Supreme Court, the federal electoral commission has been tasked with carrying out the poll.
The Iraqi electoral body is currently preparing for Iraq-wide provincial elections later this year and has repeatedly stated that it would not be able to hold both elections in close proximity.
Iraqi provincial council elections are set for December 18, while the Kurdistan Region's parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 18.
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