Satement of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Political Bureau

After more than eight months of hearings, the Federal Supreme Court has reached a ruling on the lawsuit filed against the Kurdistan Parliamentary Election Law No. 1 of 1992, as amended. Finally, on the 21st of February 2024 the court announced a decision that violated the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan Region, the principles of federalism and the principle of separation of powers enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution. Therefore, we considered it necessary for the Kurdish people to be aware of the unfairness of the court's decision through this statement.

 

The beloved People of Kurdistan

It is obvious that the Kurdish people's struggle throughout the past century has been to reject the dictatorship and has rose up against the oppression of successive Iraqi governments to achieve freedom and realize their political and democratic rights according to international treaties and documents.  In 1991, the Kurdish people rose up against the dictatorship and liberated a large area of ​​Iraqi Kurdistan and established a political entity with legislative, executive and judicial powers, after President Barzani called for free elections in the spring of the same year to establish the Parliament of Kurdistan-Iraq from which other political powers in the region emerged, and became a stage for the transfer of revolutionary legitimacy to legal and democratic legitimacy. The Kurdistan Parliament also declared federalism as a basis for determining the nature of region’s relations within a democratic system with the aim of building a new Iraq.

 

The fall of the dictatorial regime in 2003 paved the way for the birth of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution, which is the product of the sacrifices of the Iraqi people to embody its goals of freedom, democracy and the establishment of a federal republic in such a way that protects the rights and pride of the components and treat them on equal basis and also opened the door to active participation in all levels of governance and administration for all parties. This assured the Kurdistan Regional Government and its legitimate authority to work with national political forces to build a new Iraq and establish a federal system, as reflected in the constitution, and won the approval of nearly 80% of the components of the Iraqi people, which was unprecedented in the history of nations.

However, there is a fact that cannot be ignored: the articles of the constitution are constantly ignored and violated by some federal institutions, and the most dangerous of them is that the Federal Supreme Court is acting contrary to its main duty to guarantee the implementation of the constitution and defend the federal system and consolidate it by upholding the sovereignty of the constitution and the separation of powers. It is worth mentioning that successive court decisions have violated the principle of separation of powers and the court has placed itself in the position of the legislative and executive branches and has given itself some powers and status that the constitution does not give it.

In addition, the Federal Supreme Court in its recent decisions has sought to reduce the powers and special status of the region, weakening its institutions, and allowing the federal authorities to abuse the constitutional powers of the Region, while the constitution recognizes the legitimacy of the legislature and the executive and judiciary of the Region according to articles (117 and 121). Finally, the court's decision on the unconstitutionality of some articles of the Kurdistan Parliamentary Election Law, shows that the court has allowed itself to amend the law, which is the work of the legislature, not the judiciary. It also violates the principle of separation of powers enshrined in Article 47 of the Constitution.

It is obvious that the reduction of the number of seats in parliament, the elimination of the seats of the components and the division of the region into several electoral districts by the Federal Supreme Court without constitutional justification, are considered a clear violation of the basic principles of the constitution because the Kurdistan Parliament Election Law has been in force for more than 30 years and has held five rounds of parliamentary elections. It has become the cornerstone of democracy and representation of all components and different opinions, and it has shown the Kurdistan Region as the base of democracy and coexistence in regional and international centres. On the other hand, the court in the fifth point of the background of its decision on both single district and multi district systems, failed to prove that single district system in the region is unconstitutional, even  It has clearly pointed out that the single district system has strengths and weaknesses as is the case in the multi district system but they will not reach the point of becoming unconstitutional, rather it is for the legislature to evaluate, as we saw in the previous elections of the Iraqi National Assembly, which initially the law set Iraq to one district, then made it 18, then 83. Later in 2023 the number of districts were changed to 18 again, without deciding on the unconstitutionality of the law, unless the Federal Supreme Court has replaced the legislature of the region and therefore decided on such a matter that the constitution does not give it that power. At the same time, the weakness of the multi district system is that it does not allow small and medium-sized parties to fully represent their votes, which is not in the national interest, although it is in the interest of the larger parties.

On the other hand, the abolition of the quota seats of the components in the region, contradicts the law on the elections of the Federal House of Representatives and provincial councils to allocate seats for components, and contradicts Articles (49 / paragraph 1) and (125) of the constitution, emphasizing representation of all components in the House of Representatives, and ensuring the rights of all nations (such as Turkmen, Chaldeans, Syrians, Assyrians, Armenians and all other components) in exercising their rights including their political rights by ensuring their representations in the elected councils. Consequently, the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court have complicated relations between the federal and regional authorities and destroyed them, in a way that threatens the constitutional principles on which the federal state and democratic system is based, which makes Iraq move towards a centralized system and move away from the federal democratic system. Therefore, all partners in governance in general and the state administration coalition in particular must work seriously and diligently to comply with the constitution and the provisions of the agreement to form the state administration coalition and accelerate the preparation and enactment of the oil and gas law and the law establishing the Federal Council, especially the enactment of the Federal Supreme Court law to resolve the issue of constitutional legitimacy of this court in accordance with the constitutional procedures provided for in Article 92, and guaranteeing the independence of the court and ensuring that it acts to implement the constitution, and that the constitution should be the basis for resolving issues between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad, and that the Federal Supreme Court should no longer be used for political purposes.