ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) warned late Tuesday that interference in Iraq's parliamentary elections and altering the results, especially regarding the quotas, is "unacceptable," calling it a "red line."
"Interference in election outcomes, particularly regarding the quotas, and the altering of outcomes and results is in no way acceptable, and we consider it a red line,” the party said in a statement.
The KDP said that they are “hearing news regarding interference in the election outcomes, specifically regarding the quotas [seats].” It added that interference or changes to the results announced by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) will lead to the party's "serious political stance."
Iraq held its parliamentary elections on November 11. The IHEC announced the final results on Monday, with caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition (RDC) winning 46 of the 329 seats in the legislature. The KDP, despite ranking second in total votes with more than 1.1 million votes, secured only 27 seats.
Following the announcement of the preliminary results of the elections, the significant gap in parliamentary seats between Sudani’s coalition and the KDP, which secured the first and second highest number of votes, respectively, has raised concern for the KDP. The party has called for amendments to the election law before the next parliamentary vote.
Ahead of the elections, the KDP and most parties in the Kurdistan Region criticized the election law. President Masoud Barzani, leader of the KDP, described the law as “unfair,” saying it “must be amended for the next election” during his party’s last campaign rally in Erbil.
"It is not fair that a seat in Erbil costs 40,000 votes, with a turnout of 70 to 80 percent, while in another Iraqi province, in southern Iraq, the same seat costs 2,000 votes, and the turnout is less than 20 percent," said President Barzani.
"After the election, one of the main tasks of our representatives, in coordination with other blocs, will be to work on amending the election law," Jaffar Eminki, head of the KDP's election department, told Rudaw last week.
Iraq uses a proportional representation system based on the Sainte-Lague method in which the country’s provinces serve as constituencies. Under this system, total party votes are divided by a fixed quotient to allocate parliamentary seats.
The distribution of seats and the turnout in the parliamentary election law have divided Iraq into 18 different constituencies, with each province allocated a number of seats based on its population, which has limited competition within a single constituency.