ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - President Masoud Barzani on Wednesday congratulated the people of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq on the “success” of Iraq’s parliamentary elections, as his party surpassed its goal of securing over one million votes and emerged as a leading winner.
“On the occasion of the success of the Iraqi Council of Representatives election process, I congratulate the beloved citizens of Kurdistan and all of Iraq,” Barzani, who is the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said in a statement.
The KDP won an estimated 1,078,920 votes, accounting for around nine percent of the total votes cast across Iraq, according to Rudaw’s projections based on preliminary data from the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC). The total number of ballots cast exceeded 12 million, out of 21.4 million eligible voters nationwide.
Barzani thanked the KDP leadership, members, supporters, and security institutions for “providing a calm atmosphere for conducting the election process.”
“I hope this election and its results will be the reason for Iraq to get on its right path,” he added.
Leaders from the KDP have repeatedly accused Baghdad of failing to implement constitutional articles that guarantee the Kurdistan Region’s autonomy, a theme central to the party’s election campaign.
“The votes obtained strengthen the standing of the Kurds and the standing of the KDP [in Baghdad],” Ali Hussein, KDP political bureau member in Sulaimani, said in response to a question by Rudaw’s Nzar Jaza in a press conference.
“We have to seek to make alliances among ourselves within the Kurdish parties…to further strengthen our stance,” he said, to advocate for Kurdish “constitutional rights.”
Among parties in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories, the KDP secured the highest number of votes, followed by its rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), according to Rudaw’s projections.
The KDP’s strong showing follows its “One Million Votes and More” campaign, launched by KDP First Deputy and Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, which ran from October 3 until the start of the electoral silence period on November 8.
The IHEC announced that overall voter turnout for Iraq’s parliamentary elections surpassed 55 percent, with 10,898,327 people casting ballots out of 20,063,773 eligible voters on the general voting day alone.