Voters in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region will cast ballots on 10 June for the regional parliament for the first time since 2018, but a major force will be missing from the ballot. In an unprecedented move, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) declared on 18 March that it would boycott the election. In a statement, the party said that it was choosing to “refrain from justifying illegal and undemocratic elections”. In particular, it objected to a decision by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court eliminating seats in the Kurdistan Parliament reserved for ethnic and religious minorities. Critics allege that they …