KRI's minorities denounce Federal Court's decision, deem it unconstitutional

Shafaq News / Political parties representing the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian components in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) denounced the Federal Court's decision to annul the quota seats and minority representation in the Regional parliament as unconstitutional and politically motivated.

They expressed disappointment, asserting that the decision overstepped the court's jurisdiction and failed to address legal deficiencies appropriately.

Yacoob Gewargis Yaco, secretary of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, stated that "several parties convened to discuss the Federal Court's ruling," emphasizing that it "violates constitutional rights and undermines democratic principles and national partnership."

He criticized the court's assertion that "quota seats were unconstitutional," emphasizing the need to "rectify legal inadequacies rather than succumb to political pressures."

Yaco attributed the cancellation of quota seats to the major parties in the Region, accusing them of "involving quota representatives in their political conflicts instead of safeguarding their rights."

He called for "electoral law amendments to ensure fair representation and protection of quota seats from exploitation by ruling parties," reiterating the community's demand for "genuine representation in parliament."

Furthermore, the Regional Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Aydin Maruf Selim, previously deemed the Federal Court's decision to dissolve quota seats as "politically motivated and illegal."

"The Chaldean, Assyrian, Turkmen, and Syriac components in KRI condemned the Federal Supreme Court's decision as a constitutional breach and an affront to the Iraqi Constitution."

On Wednesday, the Federal Supreme Court, Iraq's top judicial authority, made several rulings on the Kurdistan Parliament's election law and declared the Kurdistan Region parliament's 11 minority seats "unconstitutional". It said the parliament has only 100 members, not 111 as before.

Noteworthy, the Kurdish election law, enacted in 1992 and revised in 2013, was challenged in the Iraqi federal court for being unconstitutional. The court consolidated the cases because of their similarity.

The law allocated 11 out of 111 seats in the legislature for minorities: five for Turkmen, with Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, and Armenians each having one seat.

The federal court replaced the Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission of the Kurdistan Region with Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to manage the Region's elections, following its ruling that the parliament's term extension was unconstitutional. IHEC will supervise the elections until a new parliament establishes its own regional commission.