Iraqi Kurdistan opposition parties reject election results
Four main opposition groups allege fraud in Iraqi Kurdistan’s parliamentary elections and threaten to boycott the next legislative session.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — After a three-week delay, election commissioners announced Oct. 21 the final results of the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s parliamentary elections, in which the two major parties won most of the seats and the main opposition parties rejected the results.
A year after the failed independence referendum and its disastrous results, Iraq’s Kurds voted last month in parliamentary elections that witnessed a low turnout and alleged large-scale voter fraud and irregularities by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
According to the final results announced by the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission (IHERC), the ruling KDP came first with 688,070 votes, winning 45 out of 111 seats in the Kurdish assembly, positioning it to lead the next regional government. In the last parliamentary vote, in 2013, the KDP won 38 seats.
The PUK came in second in this election with 319,219 votes, winning 21 seats; the party had 18 seats in 2013. The Gorran party, also called the Change Movement, is the largest Kurdish opposition group and won 12 seats this time, down sharply from 24 in 2013.
