ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and the newly-appointed Germany Consul General to Erbil Albrecht von Wittke on Tuesday stressed the need for the formation of the next government “as soon as possible”, a day after the official preliminary results of the parliamentary elections of the Kurdistan Region were announced by the Iraqi electoral body.
“Both sides voiced the significance of the start of measures to form the new government cabinet as soon as possible for a better service to the people of the Kurdistan Region,” read a statement from Prime Minister Barzani’s media office on Tuesday.
PM Barzani and Wittke described the sixth parliamentary elections of the Kurdistan Region as a “successful” process that took place “in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere, despite some technical issues which prevented a large number of voters from casting their ballots.”
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.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US State Department urged political parties of the Kurdistan Region to form the government's next cabinet “without delay."
“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.
Prime Minister Barzani and German Consul General Wittke also discussed a range of topics concerning Erbil-Berlin relations across all fields.
“The Consul General of Germany showed his country’s readiness to further bolster relations with the Kurdistan Region,” read PM Barzani’s media office announcement.
PM Barzani congratulated Witte on assuming the post of the Consul General and reiterated “the Kurdistan Regional Government’s support for the Germany Consulate General.”
Germany and the Kurdistan Region enjoy strong ties in the fields of politics, economy, and culture.
Germany is a major part of the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) which provided military equipment and training to the Kurdish Peshmerga during the three-year-long battle against the extremist group.
Along with the US, the UK, and France, Germany has been involved in unifying and reforming Kurdish Peshmerga forces over the past few years.
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