ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Campaigning for the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary election will begin on September 16, amid concerns that voting machine issues could potentially exclude thousands of registered voters.
“On September 16, the election campaign for the Kurdistan parliament will begin and will end 24 hours before the start of early voting,” Khalid Abbas, head of Duhok’s electoral commission, told Rudaw.
Early voting for security forces and internally displaced persons (IDPs) is scheduled for October 18 and the general vote will take place on October 20.
According to the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), candidates and parties will not face penalties for launching their campaigns ahead of the official start date, once all candidate names are confirmed.
Nearly 2.9 million people are eligible to vote, including around 215,000 early voters, at more than 1,400 polling stations, including in disputed areas and other Iraqi provinces.
Issues arose during Iraq’s 2023 provincial elections when voting machines failed to capture fingerprints during early voting. Although IHEC claimed the issues have been resolved, they said if further problems occurred it would not prevent the announcement of preliminary results.
The Federal Supreme Court on Monday held the first hearing of a case against the head of the commissioners' council of the IHEC about voting machine problems.
The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has complained that voting machines failed to recognize the fingerprints of around 400,000 individuals, making up approximately 20 percent of all eligible voters.
Soran Hussein contributed to this report.
