ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechrivan Barzani urged political parties on Sunday to stay away from using derogatory language against one another in their campaigns for the upcoming elections, stressing “we are all in the same boat.”
“I have said it before and I will say it again, campaigning must be in a way that no one disparages the other,” Barzani told reporters in Zakho, “disparaging and erasing one another, in my opinion, we should not do that and it should not reach that stage.”
In late June, Barzani set October 20 as the date for the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections, two years after its originally scheduled date. The election process has been marred in difficulties, with interference from Baghdad fueling political tensions - particularly differences between the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
An official date for campaigning has yet to be announced by the Iraqi electoral body, which is overseeing the process. Nonetheless, the parties have been engaged in back-and-forth rhetoric in recent weeks in an attempt to assert dominance.
“Campaigning should not be done in a way that would harm the Kurdistan Region’s social security,” Barzani added.
The upcoming election will be unique in Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary history, with fewer seats in the legislature, a new constituency system, and the poll being administered by the federal commission for the first time due to disagreements between the main Kurdish parties that resulted in the failure to reactivate the regional electoral body.
