Local elections face a “significant” postponement. Parliament is called upon to intervene

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[size=52]Local elections face a “significant” postponement. Parliament is called upon to intervene[/size]

[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Legal affairs expert, Amir Al-Daami, warned today, Friday (September 8, 2023), against postponing the governorate council elections, explaining the reason for that.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Daami said, “Moving towards postponing the provincial council elections has become very possible and inevitable, especially in light of the legal flaw in the election law that the House of Representatives recently enacted.”[/size]
[size=45]He stated that, “Over the past few days, the Federal Supreme Court issued a set of decisions related to amending and adding some articles to the election law, and amending this law has become a must, and otherwise elections cannot be held.”[/size]
[size=45]On this basis, the legal expert stressed that “the Iraqi Council of Representatives is required to make these amendments as soon as possible, so that there is no postponement of the elections due to this legal defect.”[/size]
[size=45]In addition to the talk about the possibility of postponing the local elections due to a legal defect, the recent events in Kirkuk that may affect the conduct of the elections scheduled to be held next December 18.[/size]
[size=45]On Saturday (September 2, 2023), Kirkuk witnessed violent events against the backdrop of Kurdish demonstrations against the sit-in of the governorate’s Arabs in front of the joint operations headquarters and the blocking of the Kirkuk-Erbil road, in refusal to hand over the headquarters to the Kurdistan Democratic Party. The violent events caused the death of at least 4 people and the injury of 15 people.[/size]
[size=45]Kirkuk events and elections[/size]
[size=45]The leader in the coordination framework, Ali Al-Fatlawi, says, “What happened in Kirkuk Governorate recently will not affect the holding of the provincial council elections,” stressing that “the elections will take place on the specified date, and there is no intention to postpone them for any reason.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Fatlawi stated in an interview, Thursday (September 7, 2023), that “the government and security agencies, as well as the Commission, are continuing their work in order to provide all the requirements for the electoral process,” adding that “any talk about postponing the governorate council elections is incorrect, and this trend is not accepted within the political and parliamentary corridors.” “.[/size]
[size=45]These will be the first local provincial council elections to be held in Iraq since April 2013. Before that, provincial council elections were held only in 2009.[/size]
[size=45]The electoral campaign for the provincial council elections will begin on the 18th of next October, and will end 24 hours before the start of the voting process.[/size]
[size=45]Conflicting expectations[/size]
[size=45]296 political parties organized into 50 alliances will participate in the elections, along with more than 60 candidates who will participate on individual lists.[/size]
[size=45]Candidates are competing for 275 seats in the Iraqi provincial councils, 75 of which have been allocated within a quota for women, and 10 seats for ethnic and religious minorities.[/size]
[size=45]According to the constitution, the elected provincial councils are responsible for selecting the governor and the governorate’s executive officials, and have the powers of dismissal and appointment, and approving the project plan according to the financial budget allocated to the governorate by the central government in Baghdad, in accordance with the Iraqi constitution. These will be the first local elections held in Iraq since April 2013. .[/size]
[size=45]Expectations are still conflicting and unclear about the expected participation rate in the upcoming elections, but observers expect a large participation this time, because the provincial council elections differ from the parliamentary elections, especially since candidates in local elections often depend on the masses around them, who in turn are keen to run. This experiment.[/size]
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