The Kurdistan Region held its long-overdue elections on October 20. The preliminary results were a landslide victory for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which garnered nearly twice as many votes as the runner-up Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
“It is most likely to be Wednesday, the 30th of October,” Marwan Mohammed, head of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) office in Erbil, told Rudaw, referring to the announcement of the final results.
IHEC spokesperson Jumana al-Ghalai did not specify an exact date but said “the results will certainly be announced this week.”
According to preliminary results, the ruling KDP is expected to secure 39 seats – the highest number – followed by the PUK with 23 seats.
The legislature was downsized to 100 seats from 111 after a landmark Iraqi court ruling stripped the 11 seats reserved for ethnic and religious minorities. The court later reinstated a quota of five seats within the 100.
The New Generation Movement (NGM), the Kurdistan Region’s most vocal opposition force came third with a projected 15 seats. Formed by businessman Shaswar Abdulwahid to contest the 2018 regional elections, NGM has almost doubled its seats. The party won eight seats in the previous Kurdistan parliament term.
Many parties criticized the vote as fraudulent and rigged. The Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal), Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), People’s Front (Baray Gal), and the National Stance Movement (Halwest) said they would release evidence of wrongdoing at a later date.
On Saturday, Komal announced that it will withdraw and not join the parliament. They are projected to have won three seats.
On election day, more than 120 complaints were reported, including about campaign propaganda at polling stations and voters taking their phones into polling booths, contrary to the rules and raising concerns about coercion.
