IHEC Spokesperson confirms elections could proceed as scheduled by President Barzani
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) spokesperson Joumana Ghallay in an interview with Kurdistan 24 on Monday announced that IHEC is ready to hold the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) parliamentary elections on June 10, 2024, the spokesman said.
Following the decree by the Kurdistan Region’s President Nechirvan Barzani to designate June 10 as the parliamentary election date for Kurdistan Region, the IHEC has confirmed its ability to hold the election the designated date as well.
Read More: Kurdistan Region President sets June 10th for parliamentary elections
Joumana Ghallay also highlighted that the IHEC has formed a number of technical and administrative committees to help “update the biometric voter registration”.
She remarked that, “the commission has distributed a number of instructions to those who conduct the election campaign, including the distribution of cards and the method of political parties' political advertisement and how to separate and count the votes.”
She also reiterated the wish for a transparent and fair election in accordance with international standards.
The spokesman stated that, “about 38 political parties have been registered by the Ministry of Interior and their dossiers have been submitted to the commission.”
On Sunday, the Iraqi Independent High Election Commission issued guidelines for the registration of coalitions. "If a political party wishes to form a coalition, this should be done with one other party or more,” she clarified.
"We have determined the 166 polling stations, which is a preliminary number, through our office, so we have taken the first steps to ensure that the election is held without any problems," she said.
"The final announcement of the number of polling stations will be made after the final assessment, and it depends on the number of voters. Our preliminary assessments show that there are about 1,266 polling stations," she explained.
Due to political infighting, the Kurdistan Region parties could not agree on amending the election law last year, triggering the extension of the current Kurdistan Parliament term by a year.
The Iraqi Supreme Court in August 2023, issued its verdict on the extension, calling it “unconstitutional.”
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and President Nechirvan Barzani have reiterated their calls for holding the elections on time and without further delay.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has also called on the political parties to hold the polls on time.
On Feb. 21, the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq ruled to decrease the Kurdistan Region parliament seats from 111 to 100. Those eleven seats were dedicated to Kurdistan Region minorities.
Read More: Kurdistan Region parliament seats reduced to 100 by the Iraqi federal Supreme Court
Every four years, Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections are held to elect the 111 members. The election was first held in 1992 and the most recent election was held in 2018.
Dawid Salman, the Director of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission, previously told Kurdistan24 that there are 3.6 million eligible voters in the Kurdistan Region.