IHEC extends candidate registration deadline for Kurdish elections

Shafaq News/ The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has extended the deadline for registering candidate lists for the upcoming Kurdistan parliamentary elections to next Thursday.

IHEC spokesperson Jumana Al-Ghalay confirmed that the period for receiving candidate lists from alliances, parties, independents, and component nominees will continue until the end of the official working hours on July 18.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani issued a regional decree on June 26, setting October 20, 2024, as the date for the Kurdistan parliamentary elections.

Elections for Iraq's Kurdistan parliament, originally scheduled for 2022, were most recently set for June 10. However, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has the parliamentary majority, announced it would boycott the election in protest of a ruling issued by Iraq's federal supreme court. This court decided to cancel 11 seats reserved for minority groups, including Turkmen, Assyrians, Christians, and Armenians, reducing the number of regional parliament seats to 100.

The February ruling also changed the electoral system, dividing the Kurdistan region into four constituencies instead of the single-constituency system used in the 2018 elections.

The federal court ruling also gave authority to the Iraqi IHEC to organize and oversee regional elections instead of the Kurdish Regional Election Commission.

In late May, the federal court issued a new ruling restoring five seats reserved for minorities, a move that Kurdish officials said helped ease tensions and convinced the KDP to agree to participate in the October elections.

The October vote is expected to elect 100 new lawmakers representing the governorates of Iraqi Kurdistan: Erbil (34 seats, including one for Christians and one for Turkmen), Halabja (three seats), Al-Sulaymaniyah (38 seats, including one for Christians and one for Turkmen), and Duhok (25 seats, including one for Christians).