Legislative election to be held in May: Iraqi PM

CAIRO – 19 November 2017: Iraq's national elections will be held as scheduled on May 15, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday, urging people to participate at the polls in support of his anti-corruption plan, according to Iraqi Al-Sumaria News.

In a statement issued by Abadi’s office to Al-Sumaria News on Saturday the Prime Minister made his comments while visiting an electoral center in Baghdad to pick up his own voter card.

“There is a campaign to fight corruption, which requires uniting the efforts of all (Iraqis) to eliminate it, just like we eliminated the gangs of terrorist Islamic State group (IS),” Abadi said.

“The country is moving on the right path,” he added.

The Iraqi government decided in October to hold the parliamentary elections on May 15, 2018, vowing that the federal government would provide a safe environment for elections. The federal government will work on returning the displaced people to their homes provided that “the parties running the elections must not have armed wings,” Abadi’s office said in a statement on October 31.

The Iraqi Constitution stipulates that the parliamentary elections must be held at least 45 days before the end of the current legislative term, and the date of the elections must be set by a resolution of Abadi's cabinet in coordination with the Independent High Electoral Commission.

In Iraq’s previous general election held on April 30, 2014, Iraqis elected 328 lawmakers to the Parliament, which in turn elected Abadi to form an inclusive government from the Shiite alliance, Kurds and Sunnis.

Renas Jano, a Kurdish MP, told Erbil based Rudaw news agency, that the Kurdish faction in the Iraqi parliament may take part in the upcoming Iraqi elections and enter into a “coalition” with other Iraqi parties and alliances.

An independence referendum for Iraqi Kurdistan was held on September 25, 2017, with preliminary results showing approximately 93 percent of votes cast in favor of independence. Baghdad Federal Government rejected the referendum’s results and demanded Erbil cancel them.

Erbil announced "freezing" the referendum’s results until negotiations with Baghdad who refuses the freezing decision and insists on cancellation of the results.