Kurdistan parliament elections voter turnout 72 percent: IHEC

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s electoral body on Sunday announced that the voter turnout for the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections was 72 percent, with Duhok province scoring the highest turnout.

“The voter turnout in Duhok is 78 percent, Erbil 74 percent, Sulaimani 65 percent, and Halabja 69 percent. The total turnout is 72 percent,” Aisar Yassin, a spokesperson for Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), stated in a press conference in Erbil.

Yassin noted that the turnout is taken from 98 percent of polling centers.

The total of the recorded votes were sent to the IHEC headquarters in Baghdad, and the official results of the election are expected to be announced on Monday.

The IHEC spokesperson added that a number of complaints have been received, but more details are expected to be announced the next day. 

In the early votes on Friday, many voters reported that they were not able to cast their ballot due to the machines not reading their fingerprints. Similar cases occurred on Sunday’s general vote, however, there is no immediate data available regarding machines failing to read fingerprints. 

The turnout witnessed a significant climb from the 2018 vote, which recorded 51.4 percent.

So far, according to unofficial results compiled by Rudaw, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leads in Duhok and Erbil provinces, while the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is leading in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces. While the New Generation Movement (NGM) is projected to win more seats than the nine they gained in the previous Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections.

Polls in the Kurdistan Region opened on Sunday morning for its long-awaited parliamentary elections, two years after its originally scheduled date and with the federal commission supervising the vote.

A total of 1,191 candidates are contesting the 100-seat legislature, downsized from 111 seats following a major Iraqi federal court ruling in February.

It is also the first election to divide the region into four constituencies, Sulaimani, Erbil, Duhok, and Halabja. There are 38 seats up for grabs in Sulaimani province, 34 in Erbil, 25 in Duhok, and three in Halabja.