After the electoral silence, Kurdistan Interior Ministry warns street vendors against removing candidates' posters
Shafaq News/ The Director General of the Ministry ofInterior in the Kurdistan Region, Hayman Mirani, said on Wednesday that the endof the promotional campaign for Kurdistan Parliament elections does not meanthe removal of candidates' posters.
After 12 o'clock on Wednesday morning, the regions andcities of the Kurdistan Region entered the electoral silence after 20 days ofthe campaign, and a number of street vendors, iron traders and some people begancollecting candidates' posters that contain iron for profit.
Mirani wrote on Facebook, “The cessation of the promotional campaignand entering the electoral silence does not mean removing the posters andtaking the iron from them,” stressing that “these posters must remain until theday of general voting and the end of the entire electoral process, after which thenthe candidates and political entities are responsible for removing them.”
He emphasized that anyone who “removes the under the pretextof the campaign's end, or for taking the iron, will be held legally accountableand dealt with by the police.”
For her part, Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC)spokeswoman Jumana Al-Ghallay said in an audio statement distributed to themedia, “According to the Electoral Campaigns Law No. 2 of 2023, Article 5,candidates, political parties and alliances must remove all electoraladvertising items within 30 days from the day after the general polling. Failureto do so will result in the removal of the materials at the violators' expense.
Last June, Iraqi Kurdistan Regional President NechirvanBarzani issued a regional decree setting October 20, 2024, as the date forKurdistan's parliamentary elections.
It is noteworthy that in June, President Barzani issued aRegional decree setting October 20, 2024, as the official date for theKurdistan parliamentary elections.
The October vote is expected to elect 100 new lawmakersrepresenting the governorates of Iraqi Kurdistan: Erbil (34 seats, includingone for Christians and one for Turkmen), Halabja (three seats), Al-Sulaymaniyah(38 seats, including one for Christians and one for Turkmen), and Duhok (25seats, including one for Christians).
According to the Electoral Commission, a total of 1,190candidates are running in the upcoming elections. These candidates aredistributed across two coalitions, 13 parties, and include 85 independents,alongside 39 candidates representing minority groups, forming a total of 139electoral lists.
The overall number of eligible voters amounts to 2,899,878.Of this total, 2,683,618 are registered for general voting, while 215,960 arelisted forspecialvoting.
