ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s finance ministry has yet to provide the funding demanded by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) needed to conduct the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections in February next year, an official from the commission told Rudaw on Sunday.
“The commission has sent the estimated budget for the Kurdistan parliament elections to the Iraqi Council of Ministers, which is approximately 60 billion dinars,” said Dawood Salman, IHEC head of procedures.
Salman said that the budget has yet to be provided, which might create problems for the electoral commission’s agenda and schedule.
“That money is needed for the procedures of the commission, as without it we cannot sign contracts with the companies,” he added.
The Kurdistan Region is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on February 25, 2024. The poll was initially scheduled for October 2022, but was pushed to November of the same year due to disagreements between the political parties over the election law.
After an Iraqi court ruling against the self-extension of the Kurdistan parliament because of the delayed election, the poll was postponed to February 2024, this time under the supervision of the Iraqi electoral commission.
The Iraqi federal government is required to finance the budget for the Kurdistan parliamentary elections in accordance with the recent extension of the IHEC’s term and the amendment of its laws. The delay in financing the budget is reportedly due to the Iraqi government awaiting the Federal Supreme Court’s ruling on a legal complaint filed against some of the articles in the Kurdish parliament’s elections law.
A session to rule on the case was set to be held on Sunday, but was postponed to December 27.
