Deadline for candidate submissions in Kurdistan Region's parliamentary elections approaches

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The deadline for submitting lists of coalition, party, and independent candidates to participate in the sixth session of the Kurdistan Parliament elections ends at 3:00 PM on Monday.

An official said that the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) may extend the deadline for receiving candidate lists for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) parliamentary elections if political parties request it.

Dr. Emad Jamil, head of the Independent High Election Commission (IHEC) 's press team, told Kurdistan 24, "There is no decision to extend the deadline for receiving candidate lists; however if the political parties request an extension for a few hours or days, it will be considered by the Board of Commissioners."

Meanwhile, Marwan Mohammed, head of the Erbil office of the Iraqi Independent High Election Commission, informed Kurdistan 24, "Several political parties and coalitions have requested an extension of the deadline for receiving candidate lists. We have notified the IHEC accordingly but have not received any word from the IHEC headquarters regarding an extension."

"Because the political parties and coalitions have requested an extension of the deadline for submitting candidate lists, the Board of Commissioners may extend the deadline; we will know by around 1:00 PM whether it will be extended or not," he added.

As of Monday, July 15, two coalitions, 11 political parties, and 35 candidates have submitted their names for the upcoming elections.

The Board of Commissioners outlined the distribution of the 100 Kurdistan Parliament seats as follows:

Erbil: 34 seats, including one for the Christian component and one for the Turkmen component.

Sulaymaniyah: 38 seats, including one seat for the Christian component and one seat for the Turkmen component.

Dohuk: 25 seats, including one seat for the Christian component.

Halabja: 3 seats, without any seats for components.

According to IHEC spokesperson Jumana al-Ghalai:

Erbil province has 1,366,462 registered voters, with 1,016,357 having obtained biometric cards.

Sulaimani and Halabja provinces have 1,496,000 voters, of which 1,146,000 have received biometric cards.

Duhok province reports 926,000 voters as of July 3, 2024, with 738,000 having secured biometric cards.

Overall, the total number of voters for the sixth round of the Kurdistan parliamentary elections is 3,789,000, with 2,901,000 of them having been issued biometric cards, according to IHEC.

On June 27, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani announced that the general elections for the Kurdistan Region Parliament will be held on October 20.

The Iraqi Independent High Election Commission has affirmed its readiness to organize the election on the designated date.