2013 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election

The legislative elections together with presidential and provincial were originally planned for September 21. However, in the months leading to the elections the parliament extended Massoud Barzani’s term for another two years. Meanwhile, IHEC delayed the provincial elections until November 21. Under Kurdish Election law political parties were allowed to campaign from August 28 until September 17th, four days before voting.[5] The Peshmerga and police voted on September 19, in order for them to be able to guard the voting polls on September 21.[6][7]

The election marked the first time the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan were running as individual parties since 1992. The Kurdistan Democratic Party was expected to win the most votes. The party has had a strong backing in the provinces of Duhok and Erbil and no challengers. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan meanwhile was facing competition from the Movement for Change. The Movement for Change had in the previous elections secured a surprising 25 seats in Sulaymaniyah, which had until then been a stronghold for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan also faced uncertainty due to internal conflicts and the absence of its leader Jalal Talabani who was recovering from a stroke.

Allocation of seats.

No party won enough votes to form a government outright. The Kurdistan Democratic Party won the most votes in Erbil and Duhok. The province of Sulaymaniyah was heavily divided. The Movement for Change won the second most votes which made it the prime partner for the Kurdistan Democratic Party to form a coalition with. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, unexpectedly, lost more than a third of its seats.[10]

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan announced that it respected the results. Soon after the announcement high-ranking member of the party resigned accepting responsibility for the bad results.[11] Both Islamists and socialists made gains. A total of 77 men and 34 women were elected.

Results[12][13]
Political entity	2013			2009	Change
	Votes	%	Seats	Seats	Seats +/-
Kurdistan Democratic Party	743,984	37.79	38	30	8
Movement for Change	476,173	24.21	24	25	1
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan	350,500	17.80	18	29	11
Kurdistan Islamic Union	186,741	9.49	10	6	4
Kurdistan Islamic Group	118,575	6.01	6	4	2
Kurdistan Islamic Movement	21,834	1.1	1	2	1
Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party	12,501	0.6	1	2	1
Communist Party of Kurdistan – Iraq	12,392	0.6	1	1
Kurdistan Toilers' Party	8,681	0.4	1		1
Future Party	3,868	0.20		1	1
Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party	3,605	0.18
The Rights of People of Kurdistan	2,817	0.14
Kurdistan Conservative Party	2,420	0.12
People's Rights List	2,005	0.10
Democratic National Union of Kurdistan	1,717	0.09
	1,323	0.06
The Independents	868	0.04
Total	1,950,004	100	100	100
Turkmen minority reserved seats
Turkmen Development List	5,259	44.2	2		2
Erbil Turkmen	1,951	16.4	1	1
Turkmen Change and Renewal	1,926	16.2	1		1
Iraqi Turkmen Front	1,753	14.7	1	1
Turkmen Democratic Movement	1,002	8.4		3	3
Total	11,891	100	5	5
Assyrian minority reserved seats[14]
Assyrian Democratic Movement	6,345	48.2	2	2
Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council	5,730	43.5	2	3	1
Sons of Mesopotamia	1,091	8.3	1		1
Total	13,166	100	5	5
Armenian minority reserved seat[14]
Berunt Nissan Markos	531	70.1	1	-	1
Aram Shahine Dawood	227	29.9	-	1	1
Total	758	100	1	1
Overall Total	1,968,775	111	111

• Official Full results