The elections to renew the seats in the South Kurdistan parliament were supposed to be held in October 2022, but disagreements between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) caused the Parliament to extend its term of office by one year. The two parties had a disagreement, especially over the distribution of electoral districts.

When the year passed, the regional government established 18 November 2023 as the new date for the elections. However, the Iraqi Election Commission requested another postponement, arguing that the elections were too close to the provincial council elections planned to be held a month later in the rest of the country. After this call from Baghdad, the elections were postponed this time to 25 February.

However, on 21 February, the Iraqi Supreme Court ruled that the Kurdistan Region Parliament should consist of 100 deputies instead of 111 and that the election should be supervised by the Iraqi Election Commission.

In a statement on Sunday, the Kurdistan Region Presidency said that Regional President Nechirvan Barzani signed the decision to hold the elections on 10 June.

Last May, before the election calendar was determined, the Iraqi Supreme Court ruled that extending the term of office of the regional parliament by one year was "unconstitutional".

In the current parliament, the KDP has 45 seats and the PUK has 21 seats.

Due to the fact that strategic powers are in the hands of the KDP and its unilateral policies, the parliament cannot perform its real function in practice. In recent years, arbitrary and systematic oppression, especially against activists, journalists and all opposition voices, has increased. Reactions against corruption have also been at the source of protests for years. Regional elections are being held in an environment of occupation attacks by the Turkish state and escalating regional tensions.