Political parties of Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people in Iraq demand the federal court to revoke its decision about quota seats

ERBIL —  The federal court in Iraq canceled the quota seats allocated to the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people in the Kurdistan regional parliament.

The Bethnahrin Patriotic Union Party (Huyodo Bethnahrin Athroyo, HBA), Assyrian Democratic Movement, Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Popular Council, Abnaa al-Nahrain Party, Assyrian Patriotic Party and Beth Nahrain Democratic Party held a meeting at the headquarters of the Assyrian Democratic Movement to discuss the decision.

After the meeting, the parties issued a statement through which they confirmed that the decision of the federal court is a constitutional violation, because the Iraqi Constitution protects the national minorities right to representation in the executive, judicial and legislative authorities.

“Under the federal court decision, which seems political, the national minorities representation was taken away,” the statement added.

The parties declared that the court’s decision is evidence of declined democracy and national partnership approved by the Iraqi Constitution, because the national minorities rights represent rate of democracy, justice and equality.

The parties stated that the decision is very frustrating for the national ethnic components, since their right is constitutionally guaranteed.

The statement stressed that the federal court should not have taken that decision, because its duty is to address the shortcomings in the law and not to allow quota seats violations by influential political forces.

The statement held the two main parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, responsible for issuing this decision, by introducing quota seats in their political conflicts.

The statement pointed out that these two political parties should have preserved the quota seats by limiting voting to only within the same ethnic components.

The parties noted that they had worked hard in the previous sessions of the Kurdistan regional parliament to amend the election law to ensure that voting is limited within the same ethnic component and protect the quota from exploitation by the parties of power, but to no avail.

The parties demanded protecting the quota and limiting the vote to the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people only, so that their representatives in parliament express their will.