Federal Supreme Court postpones Kurdistan election law review

Shafaq News / A judicial source revealed on Sunday that the Federal Supreme Court has decided to postpone the review of the Kurdistan Region election law to Feb. 18. The Court had previously scheduled it for the 11th of the month.

This decision comes as two lawsuits are pending before the Federal Court, filed by Kurdish political parties regarding the quota seats and the Kurdistan Parliament elections. These cases were initially set to be decided on the 3rd of December last year but were postponed.

The complaints challenge five articles of the Kurdistan parliamentary election law, related to the number of seats, single and multi-member electoral districts, and the number of quota seats. These complaints were submitted by Ziyad Jabbar, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) bloc in the fifth session of the Kurdistan Parliament, and Amanj Najib Shamoun, representing Christians in al-Sulaymaniya Provincial Council.

According to Article 36 of the legislative elections law in the Region, five quota seats will be allocated in the Kurdistan Parliament for Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Syriacs, with one seat for the Armenian component, in addition to five seats for Turkmen.

In 1992, the first parliamentary elections were held in Kurdistan. In 2004, the election law was amended to remove Article 9, which stipulated that the Region must consist of several electoral districts.