Neaz Mustafa, Draw Media

Kurdistan Parliament discussing the upcoming election procedures, the Parliamentary Factions have to inform the Presidency of the Kurdistan Parliament about their opinion regarding the election system, by the 18th of this month.

It has been for two years; the legal period came to an end. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is asking to replace the commission. Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Change Movement, Kurdistan Islamic Union, and Justice Group are against the change. The voter's record has not been renewed. There are calls for changing the election mechanism from one electoral circle to multi-circles and, amending the election law. 

Get more information from this report by Draw Media.

Parliament asking for the Parties Opinion

The 2022 Kurdistan Parliament elections, 6th term, will be held on Friday, September 30, 2022. Last week, the presidency of the Kurdistan parliament held a meeting with the parliamentary fractions to discuss the election procedures because they have to reach the final decision regarding the election at least six months ahead of the process.

According to the information that Draw has received, the Presidency of the Kurdistan Parliament asked the fraction presidents to submit their opinions regarding the election law, no later than November 18, 2021.

The parties’ suggestions for the election

Based on the Draw Media investigations, the parties have not made their final decisions, but they have presented some initial viewpoints. 

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)

KDP is with conducting the election on time in considering the PUK local situation and the sharp downturn of the Change Movement in the last election. 

KDP is looking forward to securing approximately 50 seats in the next parliament election. Also, they are trying to reestablish the High Elections and Referendum Commission based on the current seat numbers in parliament. If this request would be executed, the KDP would control the vast majority of the commission in their favor. Based on that suggestion, KDP would secure 4 out of 9 seats of the High Elections and Referendum Commission, and they could make all the decisive decisions for their benefit.

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)

Due to its internal conflicts, PUK would like to delay the election, but they have not announced this officially. Initially, they ought to change the election system from one electoral circle to multi circles, which means each province would have an independent electoral circle.

Regarding the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission, PUK is against the KDP suggestion for renewing the commission based on the current seat number in parliament. Currently, two out of nine commission members belong to PUK.

Change Movement

The movement already submitted their viewpoint to the parliament presidency and asked for a closed list and multi-circle election. About The Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission fate, Change Movement is agreed with PUK which they demand to keep the commission structure without making any changes. In the case of restructuring commission, as PUK asked for, the Change movement would lose one of its seats. Currently, the change movement has two seats in the commission.

Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU)

KIU is demanding a semi-open election with multi electoral circles. 

KIU also demanded to renew the voter's record. Regarding The Commission destiny, KIU has the same opinion as the Change Movement and PUK, which they request to keep the commission structure as its current one. KIU has one commission seat out of nine members.

New Generation Movement

This movement has announced its perspective for the general public regarding the election, asking for "conducting the election on its legal time, September 30, 2022.

 Since they do not have any representatives in the commission, New Generation Movement demands an independent electoral commission away from the political fractions and work under the supervision of the United Nations.

Kurdistan Justice Group

Justice Group votes and seats have declined in the last Iraqi parliamentary election.

Regarding the justice group attitude for the sixth term of the Kurdistan parliament election, Omar Gulpy a member of the Justice group parliament fraction told Draw Media, “Justice group demanding the election to be on time. 

Also, they want to amend the election law and change the electoral circles from one circle to multi circles. 

He added that "the amendment should let the ethnic and religious components reach parliament with their votes, not with the other party votes that they have authority in the region. The Justice group also does not support the ideas for changing the commission, but they want a clean voter's record out of the dead and fraud names. The group only has one seat in the high electoral commission.

About The Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission

The Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission in Kurdistan is one of the commissions that belong to the Kurdistan parliament, which was made by law NO. 4 which was passed on July 23, 2014, by parliament.

The commission has started up 7 years ago. During this period, the commission has conducted only two missions: 

First: managing the Kurdistan Region independence referendum on September 25, 2017. Since it was a national referendum, there was not a lot of conflict or disagreement about the results.

Second: Managing the Kurdistan parliament process on September 30, 2018. That was the first practical experience of conducting an election for the commission. The results brought a lot of disagreements. Particularly PUK, change Movement, KIU mentioned that the election was not clean and there was a big fraud going on in the election.