KRG PM requests start of legal procedures for presidential, parliamentary elections

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani, on Sunday asked the Kurdistan Parliament to complete all legal procedures required to hold parliamentary and presidential elections.

In an official letter, the KRG Prime Minister called on the Parliament to begin all the necessary procedures "to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in the Kurdistan Region within a timeframe that does not exceed three months."

Prime Minister Barzani also expressed the KRG’s full support and partnership with the Kurdistan Parliament.

“Regarding the request of some Parliament members to make preparations for parliamentary and presidential elections, we are ready for all kinds of cooperation and collaboration with the Parliament,” Barzani said in the letter.

He added that following a series of meetings, most of the political parties reached an agreement that holding elections was the best option to guarantee unity and to resolve the issues facing the Kurdistan Region.

Prime Minister Barzani also asked the Kurdistan Region’s Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission (IHERC) to begin preparations for the elections in accordance to legal and international standards.

The Prime Minister stressed that the KRG would be ready to facilitate the election process.

In early October, the IHERC announced that elections planned for Nov. 1, 2017, would be temporarily postponed due to events in Kurdistan following the Region’s historic independence referendum.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany