PUK appeals suspension of Kurdistan parliamentary election process

Shafaq News / The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), through its election office, decided on Wednesday to appeal the decision of the Committee of Commissioners of the Iraqi Independent High Election Commission to suspend the technical and financial procedures related to the 2024 parliamentary elections in Kurdistan.

According to a statement from the board, the decision to suspend was made “pending the decision of the lawsuit number 12/Federal/2024 pending before the Supreme Federal Court.”

The board also decided to instruct the election administration to take the necessary measures.

Saadi Pireh, the official spokesperson of the PUK, stated that the Supreme Federal Court “hurriedly issued the special order on the second paragraph of Article 2, which concerns the registration and approval process for the candidate lists for the Kurdistan Parliamentary Election No. 7 in 2024. “

He added that “the court should have instead considered the costs and circumstances of the election.”

According to a statement from the media office of the Federal Court of Justice, on July 5, 2024, the court examined the application of the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani, which includes the issuance of an order in lawsuit No. 126/Federal/2024 until the lawsuit is resolved.”

The statement continued: “The court decided to suspend the implementation of Article 2, Clause 2 of the System for Registration and Approval of Lists of Candidates for the Elections to the Parliament of the Kurdistan Region Numbered 7 for the Year 2024, which states : The Kurdistan Region.” The Parliament consists of 100 seats distributed among the following electoral districts: Erbil Governorate / 34 seats – al-Sulaymaniya Governorate / 38 seats – Duhok Governorate / 25 seats – Halabja Governorate / 3 seats, pending settlement of the litigation to avoid possible consequences This could be difficult to correct in the future.

This decision followed a lawsuit filed by Prime Minister Barzani demanding the suspension of the Electoral Commission’s procedures regarding the regional elections.

In particular, on February 21, 2024, the Supreme Court issued decisions on the Kurdistan Parliamentary Election Law, which included the elimination of quota seats for minorities and the replacement of the Kurdistan Election Commission with the Federal Election Commission.

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said the Federal Court’s decision to abolish partial quotas in parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region was a “blow to partnership and coexistence.”

The number of people eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections in Kurdistan is around 3.7 million people.

In the region’s last elections in 2018, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) won 45 out of 111 seats, while the PUK won 21 seats.

Following the court’s decision, the KDP announced its boycott of the June parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region and threatened to withdraw from the political process in Iraq if political parties in Baghdad did not abide by the agreements reached Formation of the Iraqi government.