UN seeks expeditious Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Claudio Cordone, the Deputy Special Representative for Political Affairs and Electoral Assistance of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), on Wednesday told Kurdistan 24 that they will ensure Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections are diligently executed.

“We are working with the political parties and with the independent electoral commission to make sure that [Parliamentary] elections happen on the 25th of February of next year,” the UNAMI representative stated.

Concerning Erbil-Baghdad ties, Cordone said that the key aspect is that there is dialogue to ensure that Erbil-Baghdad disputes will be addressed in a systematic and institutional way.

“It is important that the dialogue continues in a constructive way to address all these issues,” he noted.

Regarding the Sinjar Agreement, Cordone stated “The important thing is an issue of credibility for Iraq as a whole to make sure that an agreement that has been made then gets implemented and the sooner it's done, it's better because it prevents reconstruction,” he added.

“Armed groups present in Sinjar [such as the] PKK and the Popular Mobilization Forces and so on need to withdraw,” Cordone emphasized. 

The Sinjar Agreement was signed in Oct. 2020 between Erbil and Baghdad with support from the UN to normalize the situation in Sinjar and facilitate the return of thousands of Yazidis in displacement camps.