Iraq’s electoral commission updates Kurdistan voter roll before long-awaited polls

The three-province region is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on November 8

Iraqi Kurds celebrating Nowruz Day in Akra, near Duhok, in March 2021. Reuters

Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission has begun updating federal voter rolls, which could be used in elections planned for the country’s Kurdistan region, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Jumana Al Ghalaie said only the federal registers would be updated, not the local ones held by the autonomous region's authorities.

The region’s voter register is one of the contentious issues between the two main political parties in the three-province region – the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan – ahead of the parliamentary polls scheduled for November 8.

The PUK, which controls Sulaymaniyah province, has alleged that its rival inserted false names on the local roll. It has demanded that it be reviewed, or that the federal register instead is used in the upcoming elections.

The KDP, which controls the regional capital Erbil and nearby Duhok province, has denied the accusations.

The update process will continue until August 11, Ms Al Ghalaie added. Voters can visit IHEC centres to update their information on the register.

It is a routine operation that takes place ahead of elections and includes entering new voters who have turned 18 and update information for those already registered.

“The permissible cases are new additions, correction, deletion and transfer, including displaced people and security forces,” she said.

The transfer of names is allowed only within each province and between the three provinces, she said. “Transfer to and from Kurdistan Region is not allowed.”

Deep differences between the KDP and PUK delayed the elections, which were supposed to be held last year.

The most recent election for the region’s 111-seat parliament and president was held in 2018.

On Wednesday, the region announced that it had officially asked the IHEC to supervise the parliamentary polls in November.

In that request, the region suggested the elections be held either on the agreed date, or simultaneously with Iraq’s provincial council elections, scheduled for December 18.

The IHEC will discuss the request and which electoral roll to use next week, Ms Al Ghalaie added.

The Kurdish region won self-rule in 1991, when the US imposed a no-fly zone over it in response to Saddam Hussein’s brutal repression of Kurdish uprisings.

The PUK and KDP fought a civil war in the mid-1990s in which thousands were killed. Many more Kurds sought refuge abroad. In 1998, the two sides stopped fighting after signing a US-brokered deal.

After the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam and paved the way to recognise the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the 2005 constitution, the two parties entered a power-sharing deal.

Further disagreements between the KDP and PUK are over power-sharing, assassinations of PUK-linked officials and sharing oil and gas revenue.

The KDP held 45 seats in the now-dissolved parliament, trailed by the PUK with 21.