Yazidi leader calls for participation in 'very important' elections

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Yazidi leader Mir Hazim Tahsin on Monday said that the provincial elections were "very important" for the Yazidi population and called on his community to participate in the vote.

“It [the vote] is very important for us, as Yazidis because 80 percent of the Yazidis are in the Nineveh province, we would like them to vote for their representatives, to defend their areas and defend Kurdistan,” Mir Tahsin told reporters after casting his vote in Shekhan district in Nineveh province.

Mir Tahsin called on the citizens and the Yazidi community, in particular, to turn to the polling stations and cast their ballots.

The Yazidi leader said that participation in the election “is very important,” adding, "It is vital for everyone, not only in Mosul province but every Article 140 province to participate and obtain their rights.”

Iraq held its long-anticipated provincial elections in 15 provinces on Monday. The last provincial council elections took place in 2013, without Kirkuk.

Monday’s vote is the first since the capture of the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in 2014 when the Islamic State (ISIS) committed genocide against the community, massacring men and older women, enslaving women and children, and destroying many villages and towns. Those who escaped the group were forced to flee to camps across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

Shingal was liberated from the group in late 2015.