Kurdistan Parliament postpones elections

The Kurdistan Regional Government has postponed parliamentary elections scheduled for next month for eight months, MP Behzad Zebari announced yesterday.

“The Parliament of the Kurdistan region during its meeting today to postpone the parliamentary elections in the region for eight months,” Zebari said.

The MP for the Kurdistan Islamic Union added: “The Parliament has also decided to freeze the work of the region’s presidential committee” which includes President Massoud Barzani his deputy Kosrat Rasul Ali and his Chief of Diwan, Fuad Hussein.

A member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, MP Farsat Sufi said the Parliament will “set a new date for the elections”.

Read: Iraqi Kurdish party calls on Barzani to resign

A majority of deputies representing the two main parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, attended the session.

The session was boycotted by the Change bloc and the Islamic Group which hold 30 of the 111 seats in parliament.

The Kurdistan’s Electoral Commission announced last week that the presidential and parliamentary elections will not take place as scheduled due to the lack of candidates and the latest developments in the region which came after Iraqi forces took control of the disputed areas, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The elections were scheduled for 1 November.