PUK appeals suspension of Kurdistan Parliament election procedures

Shafaq News / The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), through its electoral office, decided, on Wednesday, to appeal against the decision of the Board of Commissioners of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission to suspend the technical and financial procedures related to the 2024 Kurdistan Parliament elections.

According to a statement issued by the Board, the decision to suspend was made "pending the resolution of the lawsuit pending before the Federal Supreme Court, numbered 12/Federal/2024."

The Board also decided to task the electoral administration with taking necessary actions.

Saadi Pireh, PUK's official spokesperson, stated that the Supreme Federal Court "rushed to issue the special order regarding the second paragraph of Article 2, concerning the registration and approval process for the candidate lists for the Kurdistan Parliament elections No. 7 for 2024."

He added that "instead, the Court should have taken into consideration the cost and circumstances of the elections."

According to a statement from the Federal Supreme Court's media office, "The Court considered on 5/7/2024, the request submitted by the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani, which includes issuing an order in lawsuit number 126/Federal/2024 pending the resolution of the lawsuit."

The statement added, "The court decided to suspend the implementation of clause second of Article 2 of the system for registering candidate lists and approving them for the elections of the Kurdistan Region Parliament, numbered 7 for the year 2024, which states: 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, pending the resolution of the lawsuit, to avoid the potential consequences that may be difficult to rectify in the future."

This decision came after a lawsuit filed by PM Barzani, requesting the suspension of the Electoral Commission's procedures regarding the Region elections.

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 Kurdistan Democratic Party (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.