Draw Media

A project has been prepared to amend the Kurdistan Parliamentary Election Law, which has been signed by the PUK, KIU, KJG, New Generation Movement, and two parliamentarians of the Change Movement.

 This is the eighth amendment to The Kurdistan Parliament's 1992 Law No. 1, which is scheduled to be presented to the Kurdistan Parliament today, according to Darw Media information.

Presenting this project by the PUK, KIU and KJG is at a time when the PUK and KDP disagree on the election process, specifically about the amendment of the election law and the fate of the election commission and the referendum.

Fate of the Commission

Regarding the fate of the Electoral Commission, the four-party project calls for the Kurdistan Commission to remain the same, which means rejecting the idea of appointing judges in the place of commissioners or handing over elections to the Iraqi commission.

But the remaining region's commission, as it is, is not yet without problems. The New Generation is demanding a share of the commission, KIU and KJ are opposed to change their shares in the commission.

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s High Elections and Referendum Commission established before the establishment of the new generation movement. This Commission has so far carried out only one task which is conducting the independence referendum in 2017. The commission has now expired, and parliament has not been able to resolve the commission's legitimacy due to disagreements between the parties.

Multi-Circular Election

One of the articles of the election law, which the three parties have presented in their project, is Article 9 of the Law, which calls to divide the Kurdistan Region to four election circles. This means each governorate (Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, Halabja) would be a circle of elections. That is the leading point that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) opposes and demands that the election system be the same as before. The PUK and other parties believe that if, like the last Iraqi parliamentary election, a multi-circle approach is followed in the Kurdistan Region, the KDP will no longer be able to control the majority of the Kurdistan Parliament.

Independent Candidates

The amendment calls that the candidates from outside political parties, similar to Baghdad, to be allowed to run independently, requiring anyone who wants to participate independently to present a list of 1,000 voters to the commission as support for his/her candidacy.

­­The Fate of the Quota System

Ethnic and religious minorities have played a significant role in the long history of Kurdistan. At an official level, their political position was significantly strengthened with the advent of autonomy for the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq in 1992. Most importantly, a quota system was established that reserved seats for several minority groups in the Kurdistan Parliament, often cited as an example of tolerance for diversity and respect for minority rights. 

One of the points of disagreement between the PUK and The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is the issue of the quota system, which has been allocated 11 seats in the Kurdistan Parliament. In most of our political issues in parliament, they support The Kurdistan Democratic Party's policies, which have led the PUK and other parties to demand for changing the quota system.

In the project signed by the PUK, KIU, KJG and the New Generation Movement, it has been requested that the 11 seats to be distributed to the electoral circles as follow:

• Turkmen: 5 Seats (3 for Erbil circle, 2 for Sulaymaniyah circle)

• Christians: 5 (1 for Erbil, 2 for Duhok, 2 for Sulaymaniyah)

• Armenian: 1 for Duhok

This proposal is rejected by the KDP.

Will elections be made?

The Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, has set October 1 of this year for the sixth round of parliamentary elections, but time has passed and the parties have not yet reached an agreement on the elections, at a time when the commission needs at least six months to run the election.

In any case, the election is not expected to take place on time. The KDP wants to hold PUK and other parties accountable for the delay in the election, and the other parties also want to hold KDP accountable by presenting this project.