Barzani stresses component autonomy in Kurdistan's legislative elections
Shafaq News / The Kurdish Leader Masoud Barzani emphasized on Sunday the necessity of allowing components to determine their own fate regarding the quota seats in the legislative elections for the sixth term of the Kurdistan Parliament, scheduled to be held in February 2024.
A statement from Barzani's office highlighted the mechanism of distributing quota seats for components in the Kurdistan Region's elections. It pointed out "some attempts to alter and manipulate the seats and rights of these components, and how the seats are allocated and the method of participation in the elections."
Barzani stated that it is "necessary to allow components to determine their fate by themselves, without imposing any external will on them," noting that "these components are an integral part of the Kurdistan community and their rights should not be mixed with any political interests or handled unfairly."
This comes at a time when there are two lawsuits before the Federal Court, filed by Kurdish political parties regarding the quota seats and the conduct of Kurdistan Parliament elections, which were scheduled to be decided on this month but were postponed.
Complaints were lodged against five articles of the Kurdistan Parliamentary Election Law, related to the number of seats, the single and multiple electoral districts, and the number of quota seats. These complaints were submitted by Ziyad Jabbar, the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) bloc in the Fifth Kurdistan Parliament, and Amanj Najib Shamoun, the Christian representative in al-Sulaymaniyah Governorate Council.
Under Article 36 of the Legislative Election Law in the Region, five quota seats will be allocated in the Kurdistan Parliament for the Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Syriacs, with one seat for the Armenian component, as well as five seats for the Turkmen.
It is noteworthy that the first parliamentary elections in Kurdistan were held in 1992. In 2004, the election law was amended to remove Article 9, which stipulated that Kurdistan should consist of several electoral districts.
