IHEC announces campaign start date for Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections

ERBIL — The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) today announced that the official campaign period for political alliances, parties, and individual candidates in the upcoming Kurdistan Parliamentary elections will commence on May 10 and conclude on June 6.

Jumana Al-Ghalai, spokesperson for the electoral commission, told 964media, “The operational schedule has been set. The electoral campaigns will start on May 10, with a media silence to begin on June 6, one day before the special voting day, marking a 28-day campaign period.”

“The final decision on the schedule rests with the Council of Commissioners, which will finalize the dates,” she added.

The Kurdistan Region’s sixth parliamentary elections are scheduled for June 10, following multiple postponements from the original date in 2022. IHEC will oversee the elecctoral process, preparations for which have been underway for several months.

For now, it remains uncertain if the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the two ruling parties in Kurdistan Region, will participate in the elections, posing further questions on whether the elections will proceed as scheduled or face additional delays.

The KDP has voiced several objections to a series of Federal Court rulings on the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary election, including the transition to a multi-constituency system, elimination of 11 minority quota seats in the legislature, and the allocation of three seats for Halabja governorate, instead of the six seats proposed by the KDP. The party also expressed reservations about the federal government’s IHEC management of the region’s elections.

In a recent meeting between U.S.  President Joseph Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa’ Al-Sudani, Biden affirmed Washington’s support for the June elections, calling them a show of “strengthening democracy in Iraq, including free, fair, and transparent regional elections in the IKR,” in a statement from the White House.