A statement was issued by the office of the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Omar Ahmed Muhammad, in response to a previous letter addressed to the Commission by the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region, asking it to organize the region’s elections on time or in conjunction with the Iraqi provincial elections on December 18.
The most prominent thing in the Commission’s statement was: “We would like to inform you that the Board of Commissioners issued its decision on July 18, which includes proposing a date for holding the elections for the Parliament of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on February 18, 2024, or later.”
The statement justified its decision by saying, “The date proposal submitted by the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region coincided with the holding of the 2023 provincial council elections, and the two electoral processes could not be held simultaneously or at a close interval, due to the privacy of each of them, in addition to other reasons related to the technical and procedural aspects.”
He continued, “The Commission’s decision came to organize a successful electoral process management in all aspects, and takes into account international standards to ensure its safety, integrity, and quality.”
Observers expect the elections to be held next spring, given the difficulty of organizing the elections in February, when the very cold winter season peaks in the region.
The head of the media team of the Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq, Imad Jamil, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:
- As is well known, a book was issued by us in response to the letter of the Presidency of the Region, which included that we are ready, as of February 18, 2024, to organize general elections in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and the date for determining them remains dependent on the region, but on the condition that the date is after this date that we specified in our book.
- The Commission is the one that will manage the elections in all its details based on the Elections Law approved in 1992 and amended in 2013, and it will manage them according to what it is permitted to do according to Article 7 of the Commission Law. It also manages the elections of the Federal House of Representatives and the provincial councils through the use of electronic devices and biometric cards.
- We will work to ensure that the elections are fair and befitting the Kurdistan region and its people.
- We hope that the date will be set by the presidency of the region in an atmosphere of serenity and agreement between the various political forces in the region, which will contribute to our success in holding elections whose outputs will serve the region and its stability.
- We, as a commission on our part, are keen to be a factor of benevolence and rapprochement, and we call for the adoption of the date of the Kurdistan elections with ease, calm, and understanding between the various parties, and we believe that our administration of the elections with a sober voter register, transparency, integrity, and advanced standards, is in itself a source of comfort and reassurance for everyone there, which will be a catalyst for consensus and détente.
Last October, the Parliament of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq extended its legislative mandate until the end of 2023, during a vote by a majority of 80 out of 111 deputies, who voted in favor of the law extending the fifth session, which ended in November 2022, due to political differences, especially between the two large Kurdish Democratic parties and the Patriotic Union, which led to the failure to hold the general elections that were scheduled for the fall of 2022.
A statement issued by him at the time stated that the extension is a step to “block the path to a legal vacuum, and to represent the principle of the continuity of constitutional institutions in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.”
However, on May 30, the Federal Supreme Court in Iraq issued a decision unconstitutional to extend the work of the Kurdistan Parliament for an additional year, after it renewed for itself in 2022, considering that all decisions issued by it after that period are “invalid.”
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