President Nechirvan Barzani visits al-Sulaymaniyah to discuss upcoming elections
Shafaq News/ Nechirvan Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region, arrived in al-Sulaymaniyah, on Tuesday, as part of a series of visits to various governorates and administrative regions within the Region.
According to Shafaq News Agency correspondent, the purpose of the visit is to hold meetings with local officials in the governorate.
Barzani is expected to discuss issues related to the upcoming elections and the challenges facing the electoral process. The dialogue will focus on the preparations underway for the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20, 2024.
Back in June, President Nechirvan Barzani issued a Regional decree setting October 20, 2024, as the official date for the Kurdistan parliamentary elections.
Elections for Kurdistan’s parliament, originally scheduled for 2022, were set for June 10. However, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has the parliamentary majority, announced it would boycott the election in protest of a ruling issued by Iraq's Federal Supreme Court.
This court decided to cancel 11 seats reserved for minority groups, including Turkmen, Assyrians, Christians, and Armenians, reducing the number of Regional Parliament seats to 100.
The ruling also changed the electoral system, dividing the Kurdistan Region into four constituencies instead of the single-constituency system used in the 2018 elections.
The federal court ruling also gave authority to the Iraqi IHEC to organize and oversee Regional elections instead of the Kurdish Regional Election Commission.
In late May, the federal court issued a new ruling restoring five seats reserved for minorities, a move that Kurdish officials said helped ease tensions and convinced the KDP to agree to participate in the October elections.
The October vote is expected to elect 100 new lawmakers representing the governorates of Iraqi Kurdistan: Erbil (34 seats, including one for Christians and one for Turkmen), Halabja (three seats), Al-Sulaymaniyah (38 seats, including one for Christians and one for Turkmen), and Duhok (25 seats, including one for Christians).
