KDP loses two seats to PUK in Iraqi elections: final result

30-11-2021
Rudaw
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s electoral commission announced the final results of the October 10 parliamentary elections on Tuesday, making changes in five seats due to the protracted appeals process, with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) losing two seats to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). 
 
The commission said in a press conference on Tuesday that investigations into all appeals filed over the preliminary results had led to changes in five seats in five provinces; a figure announced earlier today, and confirmed as the final results were declared. 

The PUK’s Harem Kamal Agha in Erbil and Ronzi Ziyad in Nineveh won the seats which were previously allocated to the KDP’s Layla Akram and Absulsalam Shaaban, respectively. This has reduced the KDP’s seats from 33 to 31, while increasing the PUK’s seats from 15 to 17. 

Dilan Ghafour, who had run as an independent candidate, announced following the election on October 23 that she is affiliated to the PUK. This brings the party’s total seats to 18. 

In Baghdad, Azm Alliance’s Khalid Ubaydi won the seat which was previously taken by Aqed al-Watani’s Abbas Shaaban. In Basra, Fatih Alliance’s Rafeeq Hashm won the seat which had been previously allocated to Haitham Abdul-Jabbar - another independent candidate. In Kirkuk, Gharib Askari from Fatih Alliance won a seat which had been previously allocated to Sawsan Abdulwahid from the Turkmen Front. 

The preliminary results were published days after the elections were held.

The Sadrist bloc remained the winner of the elections, with no changes to their total seats, having gained 73 seats. Fatih Alliance is the largest list representing the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), with 17 seats. Taqadum, a Sunni alliance headed by the outgoing speaker of Iraqi parliament Mohammed al-Halbousi, gained 37 seats. The New Generation movement won nine seats. 

According to the final result, 16 political parties won only one seat.  

Within 15 days of the Supreme Court’s ratification of the final results, the current president will call for a parliamentary meeting chaired by its eldest member to elect a speaker and two deputies by an absolute majority. 
 
The parliament will then elect a new president by a two-thirds majority who will task the largest parliamentary bloc with naming a prime minister. The prime minister-elect then has 30 days to name a cabinet.
 

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