Kurdistan Electoral Commission can hold referendum without Parliament’s decision
A member of the Kurdistan Region Parliament on Tuesday stated the deactivation of the Kurdistan Parliament was not a barrier for the Electoral Commission to host an independence referendum.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – A member of the Kurdistan Region Parliament on Tuesday stated the deactivation of the Kurdistan Parliament was not a barrier for the Electoral Commission to host an independence referendum.
The Region’s leadership recently pushed forward the long-awaited Kurdish aspiration for statehood, calling for a referendum for the people of Kurdistan.
Since the end of 2015, the Parliament of the Kurdistan Region had been dismantled following tensions between both the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Gorran Party (Change Movement).
Some political analysts and parties argued the deactivation of the Parliament would become an obstacle for holding the independence referendum.
Moreover, they claimed the referendum required a special resolution passed by the Parliament members to host the historic move.
A member of the Legal Affairs Committee in the Kurdistan Region Parliament Shwan Sheik Ahmed emphasized there were no legal barriers if the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) decided to hold the referendum.
“The fourth section of Article 16 [of the Kurdistan Region Parliament] of 2014 mentions the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission (IHERC) is authorized and have the right to hold a referendum independently without requiring the Parliament’s prior decision,” Ahmed told Kurdistan24.
The IHERC already began preparations for hosting the referendum and is waiting for the Kurdish leadership to set a date for the event.
“We are an executive body. We are ready to enact requests directed to us from the Kurdistan Region leadership [Parliament, Government, or President],” the IHERC decision-maker Ismael Khurmali told Kurdistan24.
“The preparations [for the referendum] are about to finish soon as most of it has already been done,” he added.
The two leading Kurdish parties, the KDP and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have already discussed the referendum.
Additionally, a KRG delegation visited Baghdad to discuss the case with the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi.
“KDP/PUK decided that there will be [one] question to our people for the referendum in Kurdistan, are you for an independent Kurdistan? YES or NO,” Hemin Hawrami, the senior assistant to the Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, tweeted on Sunday.
Top Kurdish officials have repeatedly mentioned they would conduct peaceful dialogue and negotiations with the federal government of Iraq and neighboring countries regarding the independence of Kurdistan.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany