99 percent of Christian communities live in Erbil, Duhok, says KRG minister

About 99 percent of the Christian communities in the Kurdistan Region live in Erbil and Duhok provinces, said Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) minister Ano Jawhar.

Jawhar, the KRG Minister of Communication and Transport, made the remarks during a presser held at a meeting of various members of the ethnic and religious communities to discuss the ongoing legal challenges by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to the quota seats of ethno-religious components.

Unlike the Kurds in the Kurdistan Region, the Turkmen, Assyrians, and Chaldean populations are not scattered, said Jawhar, who is a Chaldean from Ankawa. “Ninety-nine percent of Chaldean and Assyrians reside in Duhok and Erbil provinces,” he said.

The former head of the PUK bloc in the Kurdistan Region in recent months filed a lawsuit against the “minority quota seats” in the Region’s legislative house. Per the current Kurdish election law, five seats of the 111-member chamber are allocated to Chaldean and Assyrians, as well as another one for an Armenian member of parliament.

The PUK has also objected to the single-member district electoral system, arguing the current form has given electoral advantage to its rival, KDP, which has refused the allegations and expressed willingness to work out new legislation, so the long-delayed election is no longer delayed.

Due to political infighting, the Kurdistan Region parties could not agree on amending the election law last year, triggering the extension of the current Kurdistan Parliament term by a year.

– Kurdistan24