Kurdistan Election Commission announces draw for polling staff

Shafaq News/ The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced on Thursday that the Board of Commissioners has scheduled a lottery for polling staff on August 11, 2024, in the city designated to oversee the Kurdistan Regional Parliament elections.

Jumana al-Ghalai, spokesperson for the commission, informed Shafaq News Agency that “the IHEC has recruited over 43,000 staff members to facilitate the Kurdistan Parliament elections.”

She explained that “selected polling staff will undergo training on election procedures and protocols to ensure the elections are conducted with integrity, transparency, neutrality, and fairness.”

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).