Iraq’s top court rules against minority seats in Kurdistan parliament

Yasmeen Altaji | Feb. 24, 2024

Iraq’s federal court ruled Wednesday that a law allocating minority quotas in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament is “unconstitutional.” Of the 11 minority seats, five were reserved for Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs, five for Turkmen, and one for Armenians.

In a blow to electoral procedure, the court’s ruling amended  a portion of the election law concerning the Kurdistan Region’s parliament amending it to read, “The Kurdistan Parliament consists of one hundred members,” eliminating the 11 seats altogether.

In Iraq’s judicial system, the federal court’s decisions are final and binding, per The New Arab. 

Yaqoob G. Yaqo, Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), also known as Zowaa, said in a statement on behalf of six Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac political parties that the federal court’s ruling is a “constitutional violation”.

“We, the minorities, represent democracy, justice and equality,” Yaqo said. “The decision is very frustrating for constituents.”

The decision is the latest in the ongoing tumult surrounding Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s electoral laws. Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac parties have long campaigned for modification of electoral law that would restrict quota seat voting to members of each seat’s respective minority community. It’s a move party representatives say would safeguard minority votes.

“It is [the court’s] duty to address the shortcomings in the law and not allow quota seats to be seized by powerful political forces,” Yaqo said in the address.

Wednesday’s ruling also mandated that Iraq’s federal electoral commission, the Independent High Electoral Commission, would replace the KRI’s regional overseeing body in upcoming elections. Initially scheduled to take place in 2022, Kurdish parliamentary elections have been pushed back indefinitely amid tensions between the leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The revoked quota law was implemented in 1992 with the establishment of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

The Wednesday ruling, which addressed several cases related to the Kurdistan Region, also mandated that the KRG turn over all oil and non-oil revenues to the federal government and that Iraq pay KRG civil servants.

Iraq maintains its own minority quotas in its 329-seat parliament, with seats reserved for Christians, Sabean-Mandaeans, Shabaks, Yazidis, and Faili Kurds.