Electoral law's third amendment: A fresh violation of Kirkuki voters' right

Reports 01:23 PM - 2023-05-13

Kirkuk.

The Third Amendment to the Provincial and District Councils Electoral Law, ratified by the Iraqi parliament on May 8, 2023, was published in Al-Waqa'i Al-Iraqiya, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Iraq. Some of the new law's provisions and paragraphs conflict with the Iraqi constitution. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) rejected the law and has not voted on it because it violated democratic values and democratic norms, particularly regarding the election of the Kirkuk Provincial Council.

The new law denies the original Kirkuk governorate's citizens the right to vote

Regarding Kirkuk voters, the new law uses data from the 1957 census. Given that the Arabization process had not yet begun, the 1957 consensus seemed acceptable. Due to its present administrative borders, the governorate qualifies as a single constituency for parliamentary and provincial council elections under Article (12) of the new legislation.

The districts of Chamchamal, Kalar, Kafri, Tuz Khurmato, and other areas that belonged to the Kirkuk governorate at the time would lose their ability to vote, according to the 1957 census. The PUK condemns this and will take legal and constitutional steps to restore these people's voting rights so they may cast ballots to elect Kirkuk Provincial Council delegates.

The PUK will not give up Kirkuk

Hassiba Abdullah, a PUK's Leadership Council member, said the third amendment to the election legislation violates the rights of Kirkuk's Kurds by excluding voters from Chamchamal, Kalar, Kifri, Tuz Khurmatu, and other Kurdish areas of the province.

"The Turkmen community also complains about the law since it violates their rights, and together with the Kurds, they asked for an intervention from UNAMI to restore their legal and constitutional rights," Abdullah told PUKMEDIA. "This violation comes to lower the votes of the Kurds."

The new law gives the right to vote to resettled Arabs 

The newly passed law defines who is eligible to vote in Kirkuk Provincial Council elections. It also states that residents residing in Kirkuk Governorate who have been there since before 2003 are eligible to vote. Subsequently, this provides resettled Arabs who migrated to Kirkuk during the Ba'ath regime's Arabization Project the ability to vote, affecting the electoral balance. 

Ferial Abdullah, a member of the PUK Leadership Council, told PUKMEDIA: "The Kurds and Turkmen do not want elections based on discrimination between the provinces, and they refuse to deprive the indigenous people of voting through an unconstitutional law, and they will take the necessary measures to remove this injustice." 

"We want the electoral law to be a law that does not discriminate between communities and guarantees the rights of all under the Iraqi constitution without serving a specific component," Abdullah said.

Failure to act on the results of the elections is inconsistent with democracy

According to the newly passed electoral law, "the election results are not considered the basis for any legal or administrative situation to determine the future of the Kirkuk governorate." It also states: "Power will be equally divided with fair representation in a way that guarantees the participation of the communities of the governorate regardless of the election results." 

The two articles state: the Kirkuk Governorate's election results will not be accepted and declare that power will be divided in the governorate regardless of the results of the elections.

"Democracy is based on the rule of the people, as the people vote to renew power," Saber Ismail, a member of the PUK Leadership Council, told PUKMEDIA. 

"Therefore, the two paragraphs that stipulate not working on election results and sharing power regardless of results are utterly incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy and the freedom of the people to choose their government," he added. 

Meanwhile, the Iraqi constitution's Article 140 acknowledged the necessity to restore normalcy in the Kirkuk governorate and other regions disputed between Erbil and Baghdad. The article outlines three steps of implementation: normalization, a census, and a referendum on Kirkuk to decide the future of the governorate.


PUKMEDIA