Politics

U.S. Calls for Kurdistan Region to Hold Elections ‘As Soon As Feasible’

“We urge the parties to reach an agreement quickly to schedule free, fair, and transparent elections as soon as feasible,” Patel said.

Laurie Mylroie 2024/05/31 10:45

State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel said. (Photo: AFP video grab)

World parliamentary election Vedant Patel AANES SDF IHEC US State Department Spokesperson

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Thursday that the U.S. wanted to see elections held in the Kurdistan Region “as soon as feasible.”

Patel was also asked about the plans of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the political administration of the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to hold elections in the territory it controls.

The AANES has set June 11 as the date for the vote. However, Patel expressed U.S. opposition, saying that the conditions for holding proper elections in northeast Syria (Rojava) did not now exist.

Kurdistan Region

Parliamentary elections should have been held in the Kurdistan Region in 2022, but they were postponed amid differences among the political parties.

Subsequently, the vote was further postponed, after Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court, which has fallen under the strong influence of Iran, intervened, eliminating the 11 seat quota that had been reserved for minorities since the contemporary political institutions of the Kurdistan Region were established following the 1991 Gulf War, which ended Saddam Hussein’s rule over the Kurds (even as it left him in power in Baghdad.)

The ruling of Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court against the minority seats was dubious. Quite arguably, it was a serious violation of the principle of federalism which is enshrined in Iraq’s post-Saddam constitution.

That is certainly the position of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG.)

Dubious as it was, the Court’s decision caused the elections to be further postponed. Subsequently, the President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, set June 10 as the date for elections.

However, last week, the Iraqi court restored five of the minority seats. Thus, on Tuesday, the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) stated that it would not be ready to conduct elections in the Kurdistan Region on June 10.

Instead, IHEC proposed September 5 as the date for elections in order to give it time to prepare properly to conduct the vote.

Asked on Thursday about IHEC’s postponement of the Kurdish elections, Patel responded, “We understand that the High Commission requires a delay in order to implement some recent changes to the allotment of seats in the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament.”

“We urge the parties to reach an agreement quickly to schedule free, fair, and transparent elections as soon as feasible,” he said.

Northeast Syria (Rojava)

However when asked about the plan of the AANES to hold elections next month, on June 11, in the area that it administers in northeast Syria, Patel had the opposite response.

“Any elections that occur in Syria should be free, fair, transparent, and inclusive, as is called for in UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” Patel said.

“We don’t think that the conditions for such actions are in place in northeast Syria at the present time,” he continued, “and we’ve conveyed that to a range of actors in northeast Syria.”