Iraqi Supreme Court issues order on registration system for Kurdistan’s parliament elections
Shafaq News / The Supreme Federal Court issued a verdict on Tuesday regarding the system for registering candidate lists and approving them for the 2024 Kurdistan Region Parliament elections, numbered 7 for the year 2024.
According to a statement from the Supreme Federal Court's media office, "The Court considered on 7/5/2024 the request submitted by the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which includes issuing a provincial order in lawsuit No. 126/Federal/2024 pending the decision on the lawsuit."
The statement added that the court "decided to suspend the implementation of the second clause of Article 2 of the system for registering candidate lists and approving them for the 2024 Kurdistan Region Parliament elections, numbered 7, which stipulates: The Kurdistan Region 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, until the lawsuit is resolved, in order to avoid the potential consequences that may be difficult to rectify in the future."
Notably, the Supreme Court issued decisions on February 21st, 2024, regarding the Kurdistan Parliament Election Law, which included the cancellation of minority "quota" seats and the replacement of the Kurdistan Electoral Commission with the federal one.
Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani stated that the Federal Supreme Court's decision to cancel the component quotas in the Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections is a "blow to partnership and coexistence."
The number of eligible voters in the Kurdistan Parliament elections is approximately 3.7 million people.
The last elections in the region, held in 2018, resulted in the KDP winning 45 out of 111 seats, while the PUK won 21 seats.
Following the Court’s decision, the KDP announced its boycott of the parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region scheduled for June, threatening to withdraw from the political process in Iraq if political parties in Baghdad did not adhere to the agreements leading to the formation of the Iraqi government.
