Politics

U.S. Calls for Holding Kurdish Elections ‘At Earliest Opportunity’

The most senior Kurdish officials, along with the U.S. and U.N. have all called for holding the elections as soon as possible.

Laurie Mylroie 2024/02/22 13:46

State Dept spokesperson Matthew Miller answers questions during a briefing in Washington, July 18, 2023. (Photo: AP)

World Matthew Miller US State Department

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller, addressing reporters on Wednesday, expressed Washington’s aim to see the long-delayed parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region held as soon as possible.

“As a matter of longstanding U.S. policy, we support holding parliamentary elections in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region at the earliest opportunity,” Miller stated.

“As we do everywhere, we encourage those elections to be free, fair, and transparent,” he added.

Parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region were originally scheduled to be held in Oct. 2022, but they were postponed until the following year, due to differences among the various political parties.

Then, in Aug. 2023, the President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, set Feb. 25, 2024, as the new date for the elections.

However, Iraq’s Independent Higher Electoral Commission (IHEC), which is based in Baghdad, said that it was necessary to wait for the decision of Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on a lawsuit brought by two Kurdish parties regarding the elections.

One part of the lawsuit challenged the provision in the Kurdish electoral law that sets aside parliamentary seats for minorities in the Kurdistan Region, including for Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Armenians—all of whom are Christian.

That has been a provision of the Kurdish electoral law since 1993, and the U.S. has long, and regularly, lauded the Kurdistan Region for its religious tolerance.

However, the presence of Christian representatives in the Kurdish parliament, apparently,may well end, following the decision of the Baghdad court.

On Tuesday, representatives from the office of the Kurdish Presidency, IHEC, and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) met to discuss a new date for the Kurdish elections.

Both the Kurdish President and the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, have called for holding the elections without further delay.

Yet Tuesday’s meeting ended with no announcement of a new date for the elections.

However, on Wednesday, Emad Jamil, the head of IHEC told Kurdistan 24 that a high-level delegation would visit Erbil soon to discuss a new date for the elections.