Blinken on IKR Elections: We Want to See Elections Go Forward

Kurdistan 09:57 AM - 2024-04-06

U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken.

United States (U.S.) State Secretary Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. wants the next parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region to go forward.

State Secretary Blinken answered a question regarding the Kurdistan Region's next parliamentary elections in a solo press conference on April 4 in Brussels and stated: "Well, we want to see – we want to see elections go forward, we want to see everyone participate in those elections, and we want to make sure that people feel that they are well represented."

"And it’s also vitally important that the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil move forward in a positive and productive way for all the people of Iraq, including the Kurdish region," he added.

He said: "And we’re very focused on that in our conversations with the government in Baghdad as well as with officials in the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government).  And again, elections I think are an important part of that."

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and all other Kurdish parties, with the exception of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), are prepared for the sixth term of the Kurdistan Parliamentary Elections, scheduled to occur on June 10, 2024. The Iraqi Independent High Election Commission (IHEC) has invested significant funds into ensuring the smooth running of the Kurdistan parliamentary elections, and it asserts that no party has the power to disrupt the electoral process.

Amanj Aziz, head of IHEC's Sulaymaniyah Office, previously told PUKMEDIA: "With the exception of the KDP, all the political parties seeking to take part in the Kurdistan parliamentary elections have duly submitted their candidate lists to the commission."

"In the Sulaymaniyah constituency, two coalitions consisting of six Kurdish parties and the other five parties expressed their readiness for the elections and submitted the names of their candidates to the commission. Additionally, 22 independent candidates have registered their names," stated Aziz.

A total of 20 political parties, 2 coalitions, and 62 independent candidates were registered to take part in the forthcoming parliamentary elections throughout all four constituencies of Kurdistan. However, the current count of registered names of candidates indicate that only two coalitions, 10 parties, together with 54 independent candidates are taking part in the elections.

The Kurdistan Region has a total of 3,789,360 voters, out of whom over 2,900,000 have successfully registered in the biometric registration and are expected to take part in the elections in all four constituencies of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, and Halabja.

See U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken's remarks to the press here...

 

PUKMEDIA