IHEC chief says hard to hold Kurdistan elections on May 19

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s senior elections official said on Thursday that it would be hard to hold parliamentary elections in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on May 19 due to lack of laws and budget for this purpose. “The Independent High Electoral Commission would need a maximum of 90 days after receiving the relevant law from Iraq’s Kurdistan and the budget from the cabinet to hold the elections in the region,” IHEC chief Faraj al-Haydari told IraqiNews.com news agency. The autonomous region’s parliament speaker, Adnan al-Mufti, after the law on elections was endorsed during an extraordinary session held on Wednesday, had told IraqiNews.com that the law would be sent to the IHEC to set a final date for the polls. AmR (P) 1