Kurdistan Region PM urges candidates to avoid 'slander and insult' in election campaigns

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani urged candidates and electoral alliances to avoid political "slander and insult" in propaganda campaigns in preparation for the Iraqi legislative elections scheduled for Oct. 10th.

Barzani said during a meeting of the autonomous Kurdistan Region's Council of Ministers that campaigns should be held in a "peaceful and civil atmosphere, free from defamation and offense."

The Prime Minister called on the representatives of the Kurdistan Region in the federal parliament in Baghdad "to defend the public interests and the rights and entitlements of the people of Kurdistan."

He continued, "The conflict and competition between the Kurdish parties must turn to defending national issues and the rights of the people of Kurdistan."

The vote will be governed by a new electoral law that divides the country into 83 electoral districts, instead of the previous 18.

The chair of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) pledged this week that parliamentary elections scheduled for next month will be free and fair, despite some indications of attempts at fraud and expectations of low participation.

Read More: Iraqi commission head projects confidence amid claims of 'selling' votes for upcoming election

The commission's head, Judge Jalil Adnan Khalaf, said in an interview published by the Associated Press on Wednesday that the body had already foiled a number of attempts to subvert the electoral process.

“What we hear, here and there, is that citizens are selling their voter cards,” he said, referring to a potential scheme in which candidates could essentially buy votes, although it is not clear whether such efforts could be sufficient to affect any of the results.