Kurdish President awaits IHEC's request for a new election date: spokesperson

Shafaq News/ Setting a new date for the Kurdistan Parliament elections depends on a request from the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), Kurdistan Region Presidency spokesperson Dilshad Shehab said on Thursday.

Shahab made the remarks to reporters on the sidelines of a condolence ceremony at the Iranian consulate in Erbil for late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir Hossein Abdollahian, and their entourage, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

"The Independent High Electoral Commission is scheduled to hold a meeting to review its program for the Kurdistan Parliament elections. We are awaiting steps from the Commission in this regard, as the decision is in their hands. Until then, they are bound by the previously set election date," Shahab said.

He added that if the Commission cannot hold the elections on the scheduled date according to the recent decision by the Electoral Judicial Authority, it should inform them. "In case such notification arrives, the Kurdistan Region Presidency will set a new date for the parliamentary elections," he said.

The Kurdistan Region was set to hold parliamentary elections on June 10 following a nearly two-year delay, after multiple postponements caused by disputes between political parties and pending legal cases related to the electoral process.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) announced it will participate in the vote, while the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) remains unwilling to take part despite numerous calls to reverse its decision.

The Party claims a recent ruling by the Iraqi federal court on the minority quota seats and the division of the Region into four constituencies is "unconstitutional."

Earlier today, a spokesperson to IHEC, Jumana ak-Ghalai, told media outlets that the federal election body will submit a formal request before the Kurdistan's presidency to set a new date for the long-due polls.