ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Polling stations have opened across the Kurdistan Region as voters start casting their ballots in the general election, after two years of delay and four times of rescheduling.
A total of 2,683,618 people are eligible to vote in the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Election (IHEC) which runs the process.
The polls were opened at 7am and will close at 6pm.
A total of 1,191 candidates are vying for 100 seats up for grabs. Of this number, five seats are reserved for the minorities - three for Christians, and the remaining two for Turkmen.
Today’s vote comes two days after over 208,000 out of nearly 216,000 security service members cast their ballots as early voters, a 97 percent voter turnout.
For the first time in three decades, the electoral system was changed by dividing the Kurdistan Region into four constituencies - Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok, and Halabja. In other words, members will be elected by open-list proportional representation, representing the Region’s four provinces.
A total of 38 seats have been reserved for Sulaimani province, 34 for Erbil, with the remaining 25 and three going to Duhok and Halabja respectively.
The Supreme Court in Iraq initially dismantled the 11 seats reserved to minorities, reducing seats at the legislature from 111 to 100, a decision which triggered widespread anger among Turkmen and Christian minorities.
Following a lawsuit by a Turkmen party, the court partially revoked its decision by dedicating five of the 100 seats to the minorities.
The elections had initially been set for October 2022 but were delayed several times since. They were most recently scheduled for June 10, 2024, before being postponed after the Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) announced its withdrawal, demanding changes to the allocation of minority quota seats and constituency seats. The party eventually registered to participate after some of its demands were met.
For the sixth round of the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections, two alliances, 13 political parties, and 124 independent candidates will vie for the 100 seats.
The ruling KDP and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which administratively rule Erbil and Duhok, and Sulaimani provinces respectively are believed to emerge as the first and second largest parties in the October 20 elections.
According to the IHEC, there will be more than 1,400 polling stations across the Kurdistan Region, to be monitored by 13,478 political party observers, 2,100 local and 1,165 international observers.
The Kurdistan Region last held its parliamentary elections in 2018.
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