Second female candidate in a week to withdraw from Abadi’s alliance in Kurdistan

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Himan Ramzi, a candidate for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's Nasr (Victory) Alliance, announced her withdrawal on Sunday, a week ahead of the election.

In a press conference held in Erbil, Ramzi, an Iraqi Turkmen, announced her withdrawal from the Victory Alliance, accusing the coalition of hoping to win seats on “empty promises.”

According to Ramzi, she first presented herself as a candidate in the Victory Alliance because she “thought the list would be different and fight equally for the rights of all components in Iraq. Now, however, I see the coalition is not like what I believed it to be... From their message to their platform, we can see their only goal is to gain seats in the Iraqi Parliament.”

Ramzi denied receiving any pressure to withdraw from the list, saying it was entirely her decision.

She is the second candidate in the Kurdistan Region belonging to the Victory Alliance to drop out of the race for office this week.

On Thursday, Rawshan Abdulsalam, a candidate for Abadi's coalition in Duhok province, announced her withdrawal.

So far, three candidates in total have withdrawn from the Prime Minister's electoral list. All three parliamentary hopefuls were women.

The first candidate to step aside, Intidhar Ahmed Jassim, was forced to do so last month after an alleged sex tape surfaced and went viral.

The Iraqi parliamentary election, which includes the Kurdistan Region, is scheduled to be held on May 12. Over 7,000 candidates representing different parties are competing to fill 329 seats in Parliament.

It is the first election following the defeat of the Islamic State (IS), and the fourth parliamentary election since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his dictatorship in 2003.

Editing by Nadia Riva