36 women move to the Southern Kurdistan Parliament

Out of 111 deputies in the newly elected Southern Kurdistan regional parliament, 36 are women.

In the Autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, a new parliament was elected on 30 September. Due to numerous contradictions, the official final results were published only three weeks later. Meanwhile, the number of women deputies has also been clarified. Of the 111 parliamentary seats, 36 are occupied by women.

The election included 29 parties, lists and coalitions, with 773 people running for the parliament, of whom 241 were women.

In Southern Kurdistan, the rule for the parties is that 25 percent of their respective deputies must be women. If this quota is not reached, a woman is elected instead of the chosen candidate.

According to official final results, 33 percent of MPs in the new legislature are women. In the elections of 2013, there were 30 percent with 34 elected parliamentarians.