Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections may be postponed to June, says presidency official

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Fawzi Hariri, the chief of staff at the Kurdistan Region Presidency, on Saturday told Kurdistan24, that “The Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections may be postponed to June."

Kurdish presidency officials also noted that due to the delay in the Iraqi Supreme Court's ruling, it will be very difficult to hold Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections in May.

Hariri also said the Kurdistan Region president might set a date for Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections "next week if all goes well.”

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on August 3 set Feb. 25, as the new date for parliamentary elections that had been delayed by more than a year.

Due to political infighting, the Kurdistan Region parties could not agree on amending the election law last year, triggering the extension of the current Kurdistan Parliament term by a year.

The Iraqi Supreme Court in August issued its verdict on the extension, calling it “unconstitutional.”

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and President Nechirvan Barzani have reiterated their calls for holding the elections on time and without further delay.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has also called on the political parties to hold the polls on time.

On Feb. 21, the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq ruled to decrease the Kurdistan Region parliament seats from 111 to 100. Those eleven seats were dedicated to Kurdistan Region minorities.

Read More: Kurdistan Region parliament seats reduced to 100 by the Iraqi federal Supreme Court

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 Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission, previously told Kurdistan24 that there are 3.6 million eligible voters in the Kurdistan Region.