The Federal Supreme Court of Iraq on May 7 issued an administrative order suspending the procedures for holding parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Region until it can decide on a lawsuit filed by Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

The court ruled to suspend the system for registering and approving lists of candidates for the Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections until the case is decided.

Additionally, the court asserted that the Kurdistan Regional Parliament consists of 100 seats distributed among four electoral districts: Erbil Governorate, with 34 seats; Sulaymaniyah Governorate, with 38 seats; Duhok Governorate, with 25 seats; and Halabja Governorate, with 3 seats.

The elections have been delayed several times since October 2022 due to disputes between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

In a statement released on March 18, the Political Bureau of the KDP announced that they would boycott the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections scheduled for June 10 after the Federal Supreme Court eliminated 11 quota seats for minorities within the region.

The PUK had recently insisted on holding the elections on June 10, while senior KDP official Hoshyar Zebari on May 2 welcomed the United States’ acknowledgement that it does not object to delaying the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections for a short period.

However, following the court’s latest decision, the elections will be most likely delayed until October.

Before the ruling, the Federal Supreme Court indicated that they wanted all Kurdish parties to participate in the elections.

On April 6, President of the Federal Supreme Court Judge Jassim Muhammad Abboud received U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski at the headquarters of the Federal Supreme Court in Baghdad. On the same day, Judge Abboud also met with Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq Jeanine Antoinette Hennis-Plasschaert. 

The Federal Supreme Court in a press release said that meetings centered on “the issue of elections for the Kurdistan Regional Parliament and the need to find all the necessary solutions, not to conduct them, in order to lead to fair elections and ensure effective participation by all.”