Politics

Iraq announces final election results; KDP leads in Kurdistan

Nearly a week after people across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region took part in national legislative elections, Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) released the final results, with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leading the polls in the Kurdistan Region.

Sangar Ali 2018/05/19 05:50

kurdistan Kurdistan Iraq Elections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Nearly a week after people across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region took part in national legislative elections, Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) released the final results, with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leading the polls in the Kurdistan Region.

The frontrunners in the national count are as follows, as announced by IHEC officials in a press conference held late Friday night in Baghdad:

Sairoon [led by Muqtada al-Sadr]: 54 seats
Al-Fatih [led by Hadi al-Amiri]: 47 seats
Al-Nasr [led by Haider al-Abadi]: 42 seats
State of Law [led by Nouri al-Maliki]: 26 seats
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) [led by Masoud Barzani]: 25 seats
Al-Wataniya [led by Ayad Allawi]: 21 seats
Hikma [led by Ammar al-Hakim]:19 seats
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) [led by Kosrat Rasul]: 18 seats
Al-Qarar [led by Khamis Al-Khanjar]: 14 seats

A breakdown of seats won in the Kurdistan Region, Kirkuk, and Nineveh are as follows:

Erbil:

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP): 8 seats
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK): 2 seats
New Generation [led by Shaswar Abdulwahid]: 2 seats
Gorran (Change) [led by Omar Said Ali]: 1 seat
Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG/Komal): 1 seat
Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) [led by Barham Salih]: 1 seat

Duhok:

KDP: 10 seats
Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU/Yekgirtu) [led by Salahaddin Bahadin]: 1 seat

Sulaimani:

PUK: 8 seats
Gorran (Change): 4 seats
New Generation: 2 seats
CDJ: 1 seat
KIU: 1 seat
KIG: 1 seat
KDP: 1 seat

Kirkuk:

PUK: 6 seats
Arab Coalition: 3 seats
Turkmen Front: 3 seats

[KDP boycotted the election in Kirkuk]

Nineveh:

Al-Nasr: 7 seats
KDP: 6 seats
Al-Wataniya: 4 seats
Hawiyatuna: 3 seats
Al-Fatih Coalition: 3 seats
Al-Qarrar [led in Nineveh by Iraqi Vice-President Osama al-Nujaifi]: 3
Tamadun: 1 seat
PUK: 1 seat
National: 1 seat

Turnout in the country stood at 44.5 percent, according to IHEC. It is the lowest voter turnout rate in Iraq in the past 13 years. In the 2014 elections, roughly 60 percent headed to the polls.

Six parties in the Kurdistan Region are considering withdrawing from the political process in Iraq after IHEC refused their requests to manually recount votes in Sulaimani Province due to fraud allegations made against the PUK.

The six parties are Gorran, CDJ, KIG, KIU, the Communist Party of Kurdistan, and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (KIM).

Editing by John J. Catherine