Politics

Kurdistan Parliament approves holding independence referendum on Sept. 25

The Kurdistan Region Parliament in a majority vote on Friday approved the decision to hold the independence referendum in the Region.

Baxtiyar Goran 2017/09/15 16:01

kurdistan Kurdistan Independence Referendum Parliament

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region Parliament in a majority vote on Friday approved the decision to hold the independence referendum in the Region.

At the request of 62 MPs from the majority of the blocs in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdistan Parliament held an extraordinary session on Friday at 7 PM local time.

With the presence of 68 MPs out of 111, the Kurdistan Parliament in a majority of 65 votes mandated the Independent High Election and Referendum Commission (IHERC) to hold the independence referendum on September 25.

Gorran Movement and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) who are calling for the postponement of the referendum on independence, announced on Friday that they would boycott the extraordinary session as well.

Together, Gorran and KIG hold 30 seats in the Kurdistan Region Parliament out of a total of 111. The parties are expected to form the official opposition in the reactivated Parliament.

The Parliament was dismantled in late 2015 following a political dispute between the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Gorran (Change) party.