Politics

Panorama: Kurdistan region elections

Saturday, July 4th 2009 3:59 PM
 


/Kurdistan region-election-report/

 

Panorama: Kurdistan region elections

 

Erbil, 4 July (AKnews) – The presidential and parliamentary elections of Kurdistan region are expected to take place simultaneously on 25 July, during which 5 candidates run for the presidential post and 24 political blocs contest for 111 seats in the parliament.

 

Of the 111 seats, 11 seats have been allocated for the minorities of Arman, Chaldean-Assyrian, Syriacs and Turkomans as follows: 1 seat for Armans contested by 4 political entities, 5 seats for the Chaldean-Assyrians and the Syriac competed by 4 political blocs and 5 seats for the Turkomans contested by 3 political entities.

 

There are 2,518,229 eligible voters in Kurdistan region, according to the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq (IHEC).

 

Two parliamentary elections have taken place in Kurdistan region so far: the first on 19 May 1992 and the second on 31 January 2005.

 

After some amendments, the Kurdistan regional parliament ratified the parliamentary elections law on 25 March.

 

On 13 May, the parliament of Kurdistan region extended the legal term of the president of Kurdistan region and the parliament untill the next parliamentary and presidential elections take place.

 

The legal term of the parliament and the president of Kurdistan region ended on 4 and 12 June 2008 respectively.

 

On 7 June, the IHEC approved the names of the 5 Kurdistan region’s presidential candidates: Massoud Barzani, Kamal Mirawdali, Halo Ibrahim Ahmad, Hussein Garmyani and Safeen Sheikh Muhammad.

 

On 17 and 22 June, the electoral campaign for the presidential and parliamentary elections kicked off respectively, which is set to last until 23 July.

 

According to the guidelines of the IHEC, using the places of worship and the governmental properties for electoral campaign is forbidden.

 

More than 140 European observers have shown willingness to monitor the elections of Kurdistan region.

 

The Kurdistan regional elections are supervised by the IHEC.

 

IHEC is a vocational, constitutional and independent facility. It was established on 31 May 2004. It is run by the ministerial council of Iraq and is charged with organizing and supervising all the elections and referendums that take place in the country.

 

IHEC has supervised all the elections that took place after the ouster of the former regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

 

Ry AKnews

 

 

 

 

 
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