KRG Minister: components refuse to distribute quota seats on geographical basis
Shafaq News / The Minister of Components Affairs, Aydin Marouf, announced on Tuesday that the components covered by the quota seats had proposed suggestions regarding the parliamentary election law in Kurdistan, scheduled to be held in February 2024.
During a press conference held in Erbil today, Marouf, representing the Turkmen component in the region, stated, "We urge the Federal Court to reject the complaint concerning the quota seats for these components because they have a special status, and any decision against them would have a negative impact."
He added, "We have presented several proposals, including adopting a single-district system in elections. However, there are those who want to distribute the quota seats on a geographical basis, and we reject that."
"We support the Kurdistan Parliament Law of 2018 for involving all components. Therefore, we demand that the Kurdistan elections be conducted according to this law."
Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani stressed the necessity, last Sunday, of allowing the components to determine their fate concerning the quota seats in the legislative elections of the sixth term for the Kurdistan Parliament, set to take place in February 2024.
A statement from Barzani's office highlighted, "There have been attempts to change and manipulate the seats and rights of these components and how the seats are distributed and how participation in the elections occurs."
Barzani further mentioned that it is imperative to allow the components to determine their fate themselves without any external imposition, justifying this by stating that "these components are an important part of Kurdish society, and their rights should not be mixed with any political interests or handled unfairly."
At present, there are two lawsuits pending in the Federal Court filed by Kurdish political parties regarding the quota seats and the conduct of the Kurdistan Parliament elections. The decision on these cases was initially scheduled for December 3 but has been postponed.
The complaints were made against five articles of the Kurdistan parliamentary election law concerning the number of seats, single and multiple electoral districts, and the number of quota seats, submitted by Ziad Jabbar, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party bloc in the fifth session of the Kurdistan Parliament, and Amanj Najeeb Shamoon, the Christian representative in al-Sulaymaniyah Governorate Council.
According to Article 36 of the Legislative Elections Law in the region, five quota seats in the Kurdistan Parliament will be allocated for Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Syriacs, with one seat for the Armenian component, in addition to five seats for the Turkmen.
In 1992, the first parliamentary elections were held in Kurdistan. In 2004, an amendment to the election law removed Article 9, which stipulated that the Kurdistan Region should consist of several electoral districts.
