ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region Presidency has set off a round of talks with the political parties to discuss a new date for the Region’s parliamentary vote, said the presidency’s spokesperson on Wednesday. Dilshad Shahab was cited by the Kurdistan Region Presidency’s website as saying that following a decree by President Nechirvan Barzani, a high-level delegation from the presidency on Wednesday “kicked off a series of visits to the political parties in the Kurdistan Region during which the opinions of the political parties was asked regarding setting a new date for Kurdistan’s parliamentary election.” Shahad added that the political parties they visited welcomed President Barzani’s fresh efforts to hold the poll and expressed their support. After the top delegation meets with all political parties, President Barzani will set a new date for the election, according to the spokesperson. Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said in a recent letter to the Kurdistan Region Presidency that it cannot hold the Region’s parliamentary elections on its originally scheduled date of November 18 or simultaneously with Iraqi provincial council elections on December 18, suggesting the polls be held on February 18, 2024 instead. “February 18 might not be suitable for us, this is what the Region’s president believes,” Fawzi Hariri, the chief of staff of the presidency told Rudaw on Sunday, but confirmed that the poll will be held no later than February. A new parliamentary election was set to be held in October 2022, but disagreements between Kurdish political parties over the existing elections law and the electoral commission prevented the process from being conducted on its scheduled time and pushed the legislature to extend its four-year term for an additional year. Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court in late May ruled against the Kurdistan Region’s parliament decision to extend its term by an additional year, declaring that the term of the legislature had ended and that the self-extension was unconstitutional.
