Draw Media

After nearly 15 months of dispute over the elections, the PUK and KDP delegations will meet today in parliament. This is the first meeting between the two parties on the elections after the normalization of their relations.
Religious and ethnic minorities quota seats have become the main problem facing the parties for the sixth session of the Kurdistan Parliament. Some are in favor of distributing the quota seats among the provinces. Others believe that the minorities’ representation in Parliament monopolized by the political parties.
The six-month deadline for the Election Commission to prepare for the elections has expired today. Without an agreement on the quota seats, the election commission will not be reactivated.
The PUK and KDP have been in constant dispute over how to hold the sixth round of parliamentary elections for nearly 15 months and have not yet reached a final agreement. The two parties recently agreed to re-activate the Kurdistan Election and Referendum Commission.
The PUK and KDP have agreed to hold the next elections in a multi-constituency model system. In which Kurdistan should be divided into four constituencies (Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok and Halabja), but they still disagree on the 11 quota seats.
PUK demands four seats for communities in Sulaimani (two Turkmen seats for Kafri and two Christian seats for Koya).
The KDP denies this and demands that the communities decide on this issue themselves. The communities say the situation must remain the same and the quota seats should not be divided into constituencies.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) recently entered the talks between the PUK and the KDP to resolve this conflict, which is seen as the last obstacle to the elections.
UNAMI proposed to give two seats to the communities in Sulaimani, neither the PUK nor the KDP accept the proposal. The PUK demands four seats, UNAMI has given it two seats.
If the election date remains unchanged on November 18, the Election Commission will have less than six months to prepare for the elections. While preparing the voter registration for the election may take more time, which may cause problems for the election.