Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Day Thirty One - Expectations of wide participation in Kurdistan's elections

As the parliamentary and presidential elections day in Kurdistan approaches, officials and political analysts expect a wide participation and strong competition.

Member of the central Committee of the Kurdistan Communist Party Zerk Kamal, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency "the elections will witness a wide participation from voters as there are several candidates for the presidency, in addition to the electoral lists which reached 24 in the elections."

Speaker of the Kurdistan's parliament, Adnan Mufti, had said on Sunday (July 19) that "we expect 80 percent participation of Kurdish voters in the coming elections."

The IHEC has set July 25 as the date for parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan region. The elections will coincide with the presidential polls.

A total of 507 candidates from several political blocs and five alliances are competing for 111 seats in the upcoming parliamentary polls.

Parliamentary polls in the region were scheduled to be held on May 19, but were postponed due to the Parliament's endorsement of the amended law on elections.

For her part, the spokesperson for the Kurdistan List, Suzanne Khala, said "there are several voters who will participate in the electoral process on July 25," asserting that it's an indicator that Kurds are eager to practice the democratic process and to express their opinion.

"I expect that the participation percentage will reach 80 percent as there are some people who do not wish to exercise their electoral rights and I'm sorry for that, but there is never 100 percent participation in any elections in the world. 80 percent is a very encouraging percentage," she added.

Leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, Hamed Mohamed, said that he believes that the participation percentage will range between 50 and 70 percent.

Rebin Rasoul, a political analyst, voiced belief that elections will witness a high participation percentage.

He said that voters have expressed eagerness and desire to take part in the elections as there is a strong competitiveness to win parliamentary seats.

"Voters believe that their votes have value and are different than those in former elections," he added.

Head of the Tamouz organization for social development, Fiyan Sheikh, agreed with Rasoul that the elections will witness a high participation percentage which will reach 80 percent.

"We will watch the elections. We started from the stage to register voters, and we are currently monitoring the electoral campaign," she said.

Source - Kurdish Globe

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