electoral system must be single-member constituency, says Turkmen official
“We remind everyone that the Turkmen community stands by the opinions made about the parliamentary election law, which argued for a single-member constituency and that no changes to be made to the number of quota seats,” Kahveci wrote.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Vice President of Turkmen Reform Party (TRP), Muna Kahveci, announced in a Facebook post on Sunday that the electoral system ought to be a single-member constituency and that no change should be made to the number of quota seats.
“We remind everyone that the Turkmen community stands by the opinions made about the parliamentary election law, which argued for a single-member constituency and that no changes to be made to the number of quota seats,” Kahveci wrote.
“The interest, political program and the way the Turkmen voters are located determines that the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq listens to our appeals and at the same time the Supreme Court deny all the complaints over the number of quota seats,” she added.
The Turkmen official also said that “if the Federal Supreme Court still desires to divide up the quota seats of Turkmens, then it must be taken into account how our Turkmen community is dispersed and located throughout the four provinces of the Kurdistan Region. As it stands, the majority are in Erbil province.”
“We would like to clarify to everyone that the Turkmen faction has always been and will always be a real representative of its constituency in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament. Such efforts could never prevent us from partaking in the region’s political process and Kurdistan Region’s government,” she concluded.
The session about the Electoral Law of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Sunday was postponed for the twelfth time by the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq. The next session is to be held on Wednesday.
The articles that are under scrutiny specify the number of parliamentary seats, implementation of the Sainte-Laguë method of parliament seat distribution, and the quota seats allocated to the ethnic and religious minorities in the Kurdistan Region parliament. The complaints were launched by Ziad Jabbar, head of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) bloc in the fifth round of Kurdistan Region parliament as well as Amanj Najib Shamoun, the Christian Representative from Council of Sulaimani Providence.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of Kurdistan Region had stated that “there are no perceived threats to the Independent High Electoral Commission over the timeframe of the election. However, it is no longer appropriate for the Supreme Court to keep postponing the decision over the election law.”