Baghdad requests Erbil to set new date for Kurdish elections

Shafaq News / The Federal Election Commission requested, on Wednesday, that the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region set a new date for the Kurdish parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for June 10th, according to a decree issued by Kurdistan’s President Nechirvan Barzani.

This request confirms Shafaq News Agency's report that the Election Commission decided to postpone the Kurdistan Regional Parliament elections indefinitely.

The Commission stated, "Referring to the ruling issued by the Federal Supreme Court in case number (126/Federal/2024) filed by the Kurdish Prime Minister in his official capacity against the Independent High Electoral Commission, and the consequent suspension of the technical and financial procedures for the 2024 Kurdistan Regional Parliament elections as per the decision of the Board of Commissioners number (1) from the extraordinary session (28) on 2024/5/7, and the ruling of the Judicial Committee for Elections number (355/ Judicial Committee for Elections /2024 on 2024/5/20, it requires the issuance of a Regional decree by the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region to set a new date for the parliamentary elections. The Commission proposes September 5, 2024, as the new date for the general voting process."

On Monday, a well-informed source told Shafaq News Agency that "the Commission sent an official letter to the Regional Government indicating the inability to hold the parliamentary elections on the scheduled date and requested it to set a new date for the elections."

Last February, Iraq's Supreme Court ruled that a specific item regarding the minority quota in the KRG's provincial election statute was "unconstitutional." This article, which is part of a statute passed in 1992 and updated in 2013, mandates 11 quota seats for ethnic and religious minorities in the Kurdish parliament out of 111.

The court ruled that the Kurdish Parliament has only 100 seats.

The decision sparked indignation among minority representatives, prompting a boycott of the next elections by various parties, primarily the KDP.

Leader Barzani described the Federal Supreme Court's decision to invalidate the component quotas in the Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections as a "blow to partnership and coexistence."

During this commotion, the Supreme Judicial Council declared that it would accept a request to temporarily halt technical and financial preparations for the Kurdistan Region's approaching elections.

Notably, there are roughly 3.7 million eligible voters in the Kurdistan Parliament elections.