KDP calls for taking necessary steps to hold elections after Iraq’s top court ruling

“We call on all parties and people of the Kurdistan Region to cooperate and pave the way for fair and free elections."
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) logo. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) logo. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Tuesday called on all political parties in the Kurdistan Region to do their part in holding the parliamentary elections later this year, after the country’s Federal Supreme Court ruled against the Kurdish region’s extension of its current legislative term. 

Since the political parties failed to reach an agreement last year to hold the elections in October, major parties in the Kurdistan Parliament, including the ruling KDP and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Change Movement, voted to extend the fifth legislative term on November 6, 2022. 

The Iraqi federal court on Tuesday deemed the extension “unconstitutional.”

“We call on all parties and people of the Kurdistan Region to cooperate and pave the way for fair and free elections,” the KDP spokesperson, Mahmood Mohammad, said in a statement.

He called on the government and relevant institutions to take “necessary measures” to successfully undertake the process. 

“What is important for the KDP is holding the elections,” he said, recalling the party’s efforts to hold the polls on time last year - November 2022. 

The decision comes as the Kurdistan Parliament last week voted for renewing the mandate of the electoral commission to hold the elections by the end of the year. 

The commission on Sunday was reactivated after two new members of the board were sworn in. 

Disagreements over the electoral constituencies and seats dedicated to ethnic and religious components have been a source of tension between the KDP and PUK. 

KDP has repeatedly stated that all “concessions” have been made to enable the process to move forward, blaming the PUK for stagnating the elections.