Candidate registration deadline for parliamentary elections extends to March 31

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Jumana al-Ghalai, the spokesperson of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced on Thursday that the deadline for registering candidates for the Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections has been extended to March 31. 

As of Wednesday evening, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) had not submitted their lists of candidates for the Kurdistan parliamentary elections, according to al-Ghalai.

"Twelve independent candidates have registered in Erbil, 20 in Sulaimani and 13 in Duhok," the spokesperson revealed.

She also stated that no official request to postpone the elections had been submitted, and they were committed to holding the elections in June. 

The spokesperson stated that 3,789,360 people are eligible to vote in the Kurdistan Region, and that 2,783,552 have renewed their voter registration cards, which is more than one million voters, 26% of the total number of voters.

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.