“The Kurdistan Democratic Party has sent us a letter saying ‘we will participate in the elections,’” Jumana al-Ghalai, spokesperson for Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) which will oversee the vote, told Rudaw.
The decision comes after numerous changes were made to the vote mechanism, including a Baghdad decision to allocate five seats for minorities across the Kurdistan Region’s three provinces - a crucial KDP demand - months after an Iraqi top court stripped the minorities of their quota seats of the legislature.
After the minority seats were removed, 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 Christians.
Ari Harsin, head of the KDP’s branch in Sulaimani, told reporters last week that the party was ready to partake in the elections following the changes to the mechanism.
The Kurdistan Region elections were initially scheduled for two years ago, but the process has been delayed several times since. The polls were last set for June 10, but the Iraqi electoral body announced that it would not be able to supervise the process on that date, suggesting they be held on September 5 instead. A new date for the elections has yet to be announced.
On Thursday, IHEC announced it had reopened the door for political parties to register for the vote, allowing the KDP, as well most Christian and Turkmen parties who had also boycotted the vote, to register for the elections.
