KDP takes firm lead in first official results, though complaints

The election commission announced preliminary results in the Kurdistan Region parliamentary election, warning that the numbers will likely change as they continue to count ballots and investigate complaints. 

With 85 percent of ballots counted, preliminary results stand as follows: 

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) received 595,592 votes.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) received 287,575 votes.
Gorran received 164,336 votes.
New Generation received 113, 297 votes.
Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) received 94,992 votes.
Towards Reform alliance of KIU and IKM received 69,477 votes.
The Modern Alliance received 13, 708 votes.

The election commission said it has received 1,045 complaints from the four provinces of the Kurdistan Region. The body had previously said it was investigating 425 complaints.

KDP president Masoud Barzani welcomed his party’s success. 

“It calls for happiness that people have voted in a democratic process. The best way for the transition of power is through the ballot box,” he said in a statement Thursday evening. 

He also urged the electoral commission to conduct a serious investigation into the complaints and to “disclose the truth.” 

New Generation, which is in fourth place in the first regional elections they have contested, has urged the election commission not to ratify the results. 

Calling the September 30 vote “one of the worst elections” in the Kurdistan Region’s history, New Generation leader Shaswar Abdulwahid said the “results in no way represent the real votes of voters.”

“Degrading the commission and disrespecting commission employees were never as obvious as the current election,” he stated in an October 4 letter to the commission that he published on social media.

“That is why, stemming from our worry and keenness to the future of our country, and the political and democratic process, I call on you to not ratify the results, and dismantle this election.”

Gorran, who did poorly in the vote, is also contemplating rejecting the election results, citing concerns about fraud.