Jumana al-Ghalai, spokesperson of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told Rudaw’s Sanagar Abdulrahman that they have “started preparations to hold the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections.”
“The operational schedule and timings depend on the Regional [presidency’s] decree that will determine the final date for holding these elections,” she said.
Ghalai noted that the Kurdistan Region’s presidency will set a date for the vote in the next few days.
Last week, delegations from IHEC and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) met with Kurdish authorities in Erbil. Following the meeting, Rudaw learned that June was suggested as a date for the vote.
“A proposal was presented [in the meeting] to hold the Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections between June 5 to June 10,” Ghalai said, confirming Rudaw’s previous reports.
In the meeting last week, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the presidency expressed their full readiness to facilitate and assist the process in a transparent and professional manner.
The Kurdistan Region's parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for October 2022 but were pushed to November of the following year due to disagreements among political parties over the election law.
After an Iraqi court ruling against the self-extension of the Kurdistan parliament as a result of the delayed elections, the poll was postponed to February 2024, this time under the supervision of the Iraqi electoral commission which announced that the Region's leaders should appoint a new date as the vote cannot be held on the scheduled one.
The announcement of a new election date awaited a Federal Supreme Court ruling regarding the Region’s election law. The court issued its verdict last week.
The Kurdistan Region’s authorities have come under mounting criticism both domestically and internationally, for failing to hold elections on time.
The Iraqi government late last year allocated nearly 70 billion dinars for IHEC to supervise the Kurdistan Region’s poll, clearing another hurdle for the controversial vote to take place.
The Kurdistan Region’s parliament had 111 seats, with 11 seats dedicated to the minorities under a quota system. Last week, Iraq’s top court ruled that the seats reserved for ethnic and religious minorities were “unconstitutional”.
“The Kurdistan Parliament consists of one hundred members,” read the federal court’s verdict, rejecting the legitimacy of the 11 seats reserved to minorities.
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