IHEC awaits Kurdish presidential decision on new parliamentary election date

Shafaq News/ The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) is awaiting a response from the Kurdistan Region's presidency regarding the setting of a new date for parliamentary elections in the region, the Erbil Election Office Chief Marwan Mohammed announced on Thursday.

Asked by Shafaq News Agency correspondent about the request for a new election date, Mohammed said, "The commission has submitted a request to the Kurdistan Region's presidency to set a new date for the parliamentary elections. We proposed September 5, 2024, as the new date," noting that "the commission is currently awaiting a response from the presidency of the Kurdistan Region regarding its request."

IHEC formally requested on Wednesday that the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region set a new date for the Kurdish parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for June 10, according to a decree issued by Kurdistan's President Nechirvan Barzani.

The Commission stated, "Referring to the ruling issued by the Federal Supreme Court in case number (126/Federal/2024) filed by the Kurdish Prime Minister in his official capacity against the Independent High Electoral Commission, and the consequent suspension of the technical and financial procedures for the 2024 Kurdistan Regional Parliament elections as per the decision of the Board of Commissioners number (1) from the extraordinary session (28) on 2024/5/7, and the ruling of the Judicial Committee for Elections number (355/ Judicial Committee for Elections /2024 on 2024/5/20, it requires the issuance of a Regional decree by the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region to set a new date for the parliamentary elections. The Commission proposes September 5, 2024, as the new date for the general voting process."

On Monday, a well-informed source told Shafaq News Agency that "the Commission sent an official letter to the Regional Government indicating the inability to hold the parliamentary elections on the scheduled date and requested it to set a new date for the elections."

Notably, there are roughly 3.7 million eligible voters in the Kurdistan Parliament elections.