About the Kurdistan Parliament
Elections
The last election for the 111-seat legislature was held on 30 September 2018. Anyone aged 18 or over who is a citizen of the Kurdistan Region and is on the electoral register is eligible to vote in a direct, universal and secret ballot. The electoral system is a partially open-list form of proportional representation...Read more
Role of the Kurdistan Parliament
The Kurdistan Parliament is the Region's democratically elected legislature. The parliament consists of one elected chamber. Read about its main functions, its founding principles, the areas over which parliament has legislative powers, and the areas in which it shares legislative power with the federal authorities of Iraq.
Elections
Read about the electoral system in the Kurdistan Region, seats reserved for ethnic and religious communities, and the quota for women MPs.
History of Parliament
The Kurdistan Parliament was founded in the wake of the Uprising of March 1991, when the people of Kurdistan rose up against the Iraqi Ba'ath regime of Saddam Hussein who was defeated in the Gulf War against Kuwait. The goal of Kurdistan's political parties was to fill the political and administrative vacuum, and the desire of the people was to choose their own representatives, after decades of dictatorship.