ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Members of the Kurdistan Region parliament on Sunday voted by a majority to extend the current four-year term of the legislature by one year, in a session boycotted by the opposition blocs, deeming the proposed bill “illegal”. The continuation of the current round of the Kurdistan Region parliament was approved after a total of 80 MPs of the legislature’s different blocs voted in favor of the proposed bill. The extension has drawn criticism from the legislature’s opposition blocs - The New Generation Movement (NGM), the Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal), and the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) – who boycotted Sunday’s parliamentary session. “We had informed the speaker of the parliament that we will be boycotting,” Abubakir Haladni, a KIU MP, told Rudaw’s Soran Hussein, adding “we do not want to give legitimacy to an illegal act.” NGM leader Shaswar Abdulwahid applauded the MPs of his bloc for boycotting Sunday’s session, after asking them to not attend any more parliamentary sessions past November 6, the initial expiry date of the legislature. “Our MPs practice politics honestly and without hypocrisy,” read a statement from Abdulwahid on Sunday evening, adding “they stood against this illegal act now and they will not enter the parliament starting from next month.” The Kurdistan Region parliament has stated that the purpose of extending the current round is to “prevent the creation of a legal gap” and to “guarantee the general interests.” The Kurdistan Region held its fifth parliamentary elections for the 111-seat legislature on September 30, 2018. Over one million people participated in the vote, recording a turnout of 59 percent. A new parliamentary election was set to be held on October 1, but disagreements between Kurdish political parties over the current elections law and the electoral commission prevented the process from being conducted on its scheduled time.
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