Christians want representatives in the Kurdistan Parliament

Elections in South Kurdistan are on 30 September.

Christians living in the Kurdistan Region said they opposed the quota system under the existing regulations and said they would like to send their representatives to the parliament.

On 30 September, parliamentary elections will take place in the Kurdistan Region. Despite the quota allocation in parliament for ethnic groups, structures want to send their representatives to the parliament. For that reason, Christian citizens living in Hewlêr (Erbil) staged an action and underlined they don't consider the quota system to be right.

The demonstration was attended by dozens of Christians and ended with the reading of a press release. In this statement it was underlined that Christian deputies have not been elected for three periods in the Kurdistan parliament, and Christians are asked to vote only for other candidates.

Demonstrators demanded that the existing quota system be corrected in this way. Thus, it was noted that the people could actually vote for the candidates they really believe could represent them in parliament.

The Parliament of the Kurdistan Region consists of 111 seats.

Seats are guaranteed for 11 different ethnic groups. Of the 11 seats, 5 are for Christians, 5 for Turkmens, and 1 is reserved for Armenians.

However, because of the legislative gap related to the quota system, ethnic groups cannot actually elect their candidates and parties enable the candidates they themselves determine to enter the parliament on their behalf.