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Iraqi Kurdistan Parties Concerned About New Electoral Law

Minor political parties in Iraq’s Kurdistan region have expressed concerns that the new electoral system will not allow for proper representation, writes Abdel Hamid Zebari.
Electoral workers tally ballots after the end of voting in a polling station in Baghdad, July 25, 2009. Iraqi Kurds voted on Saturday in elections expected to keep President Masoud Barzani in power in Kurdistan and unlikely to allay voters' worries about corruption or end a feud with Baghdad over land and oil.   REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (IRAQ ELECTIONS POLITICS ENERGY) - RTR261N3
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The minor parties in the Iraqi Kurdistan region believe that the semi-open list electoral system works in their favor better than the proportional or closed-list electoral systems, which do not allow these parties to be properly represented in the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament.

A significant number of Kurdish parties have only one or two seats in the region’s parliament, which they won as a result of their alliance with a group of parties or with the two major parties of the region — the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by President Massoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani.

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