Kurds of Kirkuk insist upcoming provincial council elections be based on 1957 census

Article 13 of Law No. 4 of 2023 states that the 1957 census should be a primary basis of voter registration in Kirkuk.

Kurdistan 24 2023/08/13 22:00

Kurdistan Kirkuk Kurds Iraqi provincial council elections 1957 Census

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurds of Kirkuk insist on using the 1957 census as the basis for the upcoming provincial council elections.

On Saturday, Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Shakhawan Abdullah, several Kirkuk MPs, and the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) held a meeting about voter registration in Kirkuk.

Abdullah said that the 1957 census should be used as a basis to clarify who the original inhabitants of Kirkuk are, especially since this census goes back to before the Arabization policies of the Saddam Hussein regime.

Article 13 of Law No. 4 of 2023 states that the 1957 census should be a primary basis of voter registration in Kirkuk.

Kurdistan 24 reveals demographic fraud

Earlier, Kurdistan 24 reported that the Arabs from nearby areas are trying to transfer their voter registration from other areas to the polling stations in the center of Kirkuk.

According to Kurdistan 24, in less than a month, out of 1,300 people who visited the voter registration center in the center of Kirkuk, 600 of them were from Hawija and other nearby Arab-populated districts.

Also, more than 30,000 people have been transferred to the center of Kirkuk by the first week of August.

Since early July this year, the IHEC opened the doors of the polling stations for the renewal of voter registration to Iraqis, which was scheduled to end on July 31, but it extended to Aug. 6.

Iraqi provincial council elections

The Iraqi provincial council elections are of special importance for all components in Kirkuk, especially after the events of Oct. 16, which brought about major administrative and political changes in the city.

According to the IHEC, 16 coalitions are competing for 15 seats in the Kirkuk provincial council elections, while Kurdish parties in the city will participate in three coalitions and an independent ballot.

In the 2005 elections, Kurdish political parties in Kirkuk participated in the Iraqi provincial council elections in the form of one coalition, winning 26 out of 41 seats as the first list in Kirkuk.

1957 Census

According to the 1957 census, the population of Iraq was 6.5 million people, of which Kurds accounted for 16%, Arabs, including Shiites and Sunnis, 80%, and Turkmen 2%.

The number of Arabs in Iraq, including Shiites and Sunnis, was 5.2 million people, the number of Kurds was 1.4 million people, the number of Turkmen was 136,806 people and the number of Christians was 206,202 people.

In the 1957 census, the population of Kirkuk was 187,593 Kurds, 109,620 Arabs, 83,371 Turkmens, and 1,605 Christians.

The IHEC announced on Saturday that 198 political parties have formed 50 coalitions for the upcoming Iraqi provincial council elections.