All facilitations have been provided for the parliamentary election, says KRG spox.

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – On Tuesday, a delegation of the Kurdistan Region Presidency and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) met with the representatives of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) delegation.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani remarked in a post on Facebook that a meeting was convened with both the UNAMI and IHEC delegation. “The main goal behind this meeting was to discuss the preliminary steps that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has taken toward parliamentary election. The Presidency and the KRG have provided all the facilitations in order to hold the parliamentary election in a professional and transparent manner,” clarified Hawramani.

He highlighted that the IHEC discussed the technicalities as well as the timeframe needed to carry out the steps for holding the parliamentary election. “At the same time, the UNAMI representative expressed the readiness to cooperate in all steps for the success of the electoral process.”

Both the Kurdistan Region Presidency and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have always shown their serious desires to hold elections in the Kurdistan Region and have taken all the essential legal responsibilities toward this goal. They are doing everything necessary to hold successful elections in the Kurdistan Region with the same enthusiasm and seriousness.

On Monday, Jumana al Ghalai, the spokesperson of IHEC, informed Kurdistan 24 that “in order to prepare for the parliamentary election of Kurdistan Region, we are going to have a meeting with the Kurdistan Regional Government today.”

“The date that we are going to designate for the parliamentary election is not final and could still be changed,” Ghalai clarified.

In Aug. 3, 2023, Dilshad Shahab, the Spokesperson of Kurdistan Region Presidency announced in a media conference that Kurdistan Region’s President Nechirvan Barzani has issued a decree declaring Feb. 25, 2024 as the date for the sixth session of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) parliamentary elections.

After the expiration of the fifth session of the Kurdistan Parliament, on Oct. 9, 2022, the Kurdistan Parliament passed Law No. 12 to extend the fifth session. On May 22, 2023, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) parliament decided to re-activate the Election and Referendum Commission, but the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court declared the reactivation illegal.

The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has informed the Kurdistan Regional Presidency that it cannot hold the parliamentary elections on February 25, and called for a new date for the process.

Every four years, Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections are held to elect the 111 members. The election was first held in 1992 and the most recent election was held in 2018.

Dawid Salman, the Director of the IHEC, previously told Kurdistan24 that there are 3.6 million eligible voters in the Kurdistan Region.