ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Campaigning for the Kurdistan Region’s October 20 parliamentary elections will come to an end at midnight on Tuesday with the political parties making their final attempts and holding their last rallies to secure as many votes as possible. 

According to Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), a total of 66 complaints were filed against violations committed by the political parties and their candidates during the 20-day-long campaigning period across the four provinces of the Kurdistan Region. 

The election campaigns will conclude at 11:59 pm on Tuesday. 

Around 3.8 million people were eligible to vote in the upcoming elections, out of which nearly three million have completed the biometric process and will be able to cast their ballots on October 20.
 
According to the IHEC, there will be more than 1,400 polling stations across the Kurdistan Region.

A total of 30,573 party observers, 3,100 local observers and 1,527 international observers will monitor the voting process, according to the IHEC. 
   

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 removed 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. Of the five seats, three were allocated to Christians - two Assyrians and one Armenian, and two to Turkmens. 

The elections had initially been set for October 2022 but were repeatedly delayed. 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.

The Kurdistan Region last held its parliamentary elections in 2018.