“The Kurdistan Democratic Party was always ready to participate in the elections, but it had observations about its mechanisms,” Ari Harsin, head of the KDP’s branch in Sulaimani, told reporters.
“With the recent changes made [to the mechanism], yes, we will take part [in the elections],” he affirmed.
The changes include a Baghdad decision to allocate five seats for minorities across the Kurdistan Region’s three provinces, months after an Iraqi top court stripped the minorities of their quota seats in the legislature.
Following the top court ruling, the KDP decided to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for June 10 at the time, expressing concern about multiple factors – foremost of which was the minority quota being taken away by Baghdad.
According to the latest decision, Erbil and Sulaimani provinces – controlled by the KDP and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) respectively – will each get one seat for the Christian and one for the Turkmen components, while Duhok – also controlled by the KDP – will obtain a seat for the Armenians.
Most Christian and Turkmen parties also joined the KDP in boycotting the elections at the time, demanding the restoration of the quota seats.
Iraq’s federal electoral commission, which is supervising the process, had previously set June 10 as the date for the elections after two years of postponement.
However, the commission recently suggested September 5 as the new date for the polls, days after informing the Kurdistan Region Presidency of its inability to carry out the elections on the previously scheduled date, but Kurdish authorities have yet to finalize the date.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister and KDP senior member Masrour Barzani in early May filed a lawsuit to the Iraqi top court, stating that the elimination of the minority quota was “unconstitutional” and violated principles of fair representation for all of Iraq’s components, as laid out in the constitution.
