October 23, 2017

Elections for Iraq’s Kurdistan region’s presidency and parliament will not be held as planned on Nov. 1 as political parties did not present candidates, the head of the electoral commission Hendrean Mohammed said on Monday.

The commission will refer the matter to parliament to fix a new date, he told Reuters by phone from the regional capital Erbil.

The deadline to present candidates expired last week and was extended until Monday.

NAN reports that the election commission on Wednesday announced the postponement of elections for parliament and president for the autonomous region in the wake of the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from disputed regions across northern and eastern Iraq.

The Kurdish region’s elections commission announced it will postpone the elections originally slated for Nov. 1, the news agency Kurdistan 24 said.

It said the regional parliament would pick a new date.

Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani and his Kurdistan Democratic Party are in a delicate position after spearheading the September independence referendum.

The vote angered Iraq’s central government, which has since seized control over the city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas long coveted by the Kurds.

The elections commission also said there were not enough candidates to proceed with the polls.