US ‘concerned’ about KDP election boycott

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States is concerned about the recent Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) decision to boycott the Kurdistan Region’s long-overdue general elections, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday, stating that a boycott would not serve the Region or Iraq.

“We have seen the KDP politburo statement … We’re concerned by the KDP’s announcement. Our consistent position has been to support the conduct of and the full participation in free, fair, transparent, and credible elections,” US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a State Department briefing.

The KDP announced earlier in the day that it would not take part in the Region’s polls on June 10, labelling the elections “illegal” and “unconstitutional” following the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court’s ruling to eliminate minority quota seats.

Patel stressed that while the US “understands” the concerns raised in the Kurdistan Region about “recent decisions made by the federal institutions,” they do not think a boycott would serve anyone. 

“We don’t think that boycotting these elections will serve the interests of the IKR [Iraqi Kurdistan Region], the Kurdish people, or Iraq in general,” he added.

“The KDP has always been an advocate for providing the principles and criteria for free and fair elections, which include, at least, the existence of a fair electoral law that guarantees the representation of all classes and communities of Kurdistan,” read the KDP politburo statement, claiming that eliminating the minority seats is a violation of the people’s will.

Despite the KDP’s boycott, the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) still plans to go ahead with the vote on June 10, according to Imad Jamil, the head of the electoral body’s media team.

“The commission’s preparations continue as planned for holding the [Kurdistan] Region’s parliamentary elections,” Jamil told Rudaw on Monday, adding that they have not officially been asked to postpone the vote.

The Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for October 2022 but were then pushed to November of the following year due to disagreements among political parties over the election law. The vote was supposed to be held by a Kurdish electoral body. 

After the Iraqi federal court ruled against the self-extension of the Kurdistan parliament as a result of the delayed elections, the vote was postponed to February 25 of this year, this time under the supervision of IHEC.

The February ruling also divided the Kurdistan Region into four constituencies - Duhok, Erbil, Sulaimani, and Halabja - instead of the single-constituency system adopted in previous elections. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) stronghold Sulaimani is the most populous province and it will have the most seats in the parliament, with 38.

PUK leader Bafel Talabani on Saturday stated that the Kurdistan Region’s upcoming parliamentary election will be “more democratic.”

Several Turkmen and Christian parties have also previously declared that they will not be partaking in the June 10 elections in light of the court's ruling.