KDP calls for cooperation to hold Kurdistan parliament elections

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Tuesday called on the Region’s parties to cooperate to hold parliamentary elections while claiming that it “made all efforts” to conduct the elections on time, hours after an Iraqi top court ruling deemed the extension of the Kurdistan parliament “unconstitutional.” 

Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against the self-extension of the Kurdistan Region’s parliament by another year, calling it “unconstitutional” and declaring that the term of the legislature has ended. The court also declared that decisions and laws issued by the Kurdistan parliament after its legal deadline had surpassed are null and void.

“It is obvious to everyone that our party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, made all efforts to hold the elections on time, and for this reason we call on the parties involved in the political process to take serious steps to prepare for elections according to the legal deadlines,” KDP spokesperson Mahmood Mohammed said in a statement. 

The inability of the Kurdistan Region to hold elections is largely attributed to contentions and ongoing wrangling between the Region’s ruling parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - who have often found themselves entangled in a clash of words over the elections law, as the Sulaimani-based PUK has said it would support new polls once the electoral law has been amended.

Waad Mizuri, an advisor for the Kurdistan parliament, told Rudaw that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will become a caretaker government, rendered unable to pass “strategic” laws following the federal court ruling. 

In late March, the Kurdistan Region’s presidency announced that parliamentary elections will be held on November 18 after being delayed by a year.

“We will not return to discuss the steps and our concerns for the process, but we call on all parties and citizens of Kurdistan to cooperate and facilitate the holding of clean elections,” Mahmood reiterated, urging the relevant institutions to prepare to hold the vote. 

“We emphasize that what is important for our party is to hold the Kurdistan parliamentary elections,” he said. 

The case against the extension was filed against Speaker of the Kurdistan Region’s parliament, Rewaz Fayaq, by New Generation Movement (NGM) head Shaswar Abulwahid, NGM MP in the Iraqi parliament Srwa Abdulwahid, NGM MP in the Kurdish parliament Kawa Abdulqadir, and former Speaker of the Kurdish Parliament Yousif Mohammed.

Former speaker Mohammed called on the KRG to cooperate with the Iraqi electoral commission to hold the vote. 

“The Kurdistan Regional Government authorities must agree with the Iraqi election commission to supervise the elections,” he told Rudaw’s Mustafa Goran following the court session in Baghdad. 

KRG authorities have come under mounting criticism domestically and on an international level for failing to hold elections on time.