ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The US State Department on Tuesday urged political parties of the Kurdistan Region to form the government's next cabinet “without delay” following the completion of the parliamentary elections and announcement of official preliminary results by the Iraqi electoral body which administered the process.
“We urge political parties and civil society to support a peaceful transition and formation of a government without delay,” the US State Department told The New Region on Tuesday.
“These elections provide an opportunity for the region's political parties to strengthen the IKR’s [Iraqi Kurdistan Region] political institutions by forming a new government that can deliver concrete results,” it added.
Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), who administered the Kurdish vote, announced the preliminary results of the elections on Monday, around 24 hours after the polls closed, after tallying up 99.6 percent of all the voting stations.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) emerged as the clear victor in the Kurdistan parliamentary elections, scoring over 400,000 votes more than its nearest competitor the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Out of 2,087,972 ballots cast in both early voting and general elections across all four constituencies, the KDP received 809,197 votes, almost doubling that of the PUK, which came in second place with 408,141 votes.
The New Generation Movement (NGM) came in third place with 290,911 votes - a large jump from the party’s results in the 2018 elections in which it received 127,115 votes.
The vote saw a significant turnout rate of 72 percent.
"We saw high voter turnout and the election proceeded without major security incidents,” the State Department told The New Region.
According to the IHEC, there were more than 1,400 polling stations across the Kurdistan Region, monitored by 13,478 political party observers, 2,100 local and 1,165 international observers.
"We call on all political parties and security forces to respect the media and civil society's vital role in the democratic process and refrain from violence or intimidation,” The State Department said.
The New Region’s projection of the parliament seat distribution
Based on the voter turnout and official preliminary results, The New Region projects that the KDP will walk away with 39 seats after the parliamentary elections, followed by the PUK with 23, and NGM with 15.
The KIU is expected to obtain seven seats in the legislature, Halwest will have four representatives, Komal will get three spots, two seats for the People’s Front, while the Kurdistan Region Alliance and Gorran will each get one seat.
The KDP will receive 17 seats out of the 32 non-quota seats allocated for Erbil province, followed by the PUK with six seats, and NGM with five seats. The People’s Front, the KIU, Komal, and Halwest will each receive one seat.
The PUK will score 15 seats out of the 36 non-quota allocated for Sulaimani province, followed by NGM with eight, and the KDP and KIU with three each. The remaining seats will be distributed as such: Two for Halwest, two for Komal, one for People's Front, one for Gorran, and one for Kurdistan Region Alliance.
The KDP will get 18 seats out of the 24 non-quota seats allocated for Duhok province, followed by the KIU and NGM with 2 seats each. The PUK and Halwest will each get one seat as well.
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