Kurdish Parliament Prevented Secret Ballot

The Kurdish parliament has approved the new unified (Kurdish) government's cabinet, but a number of deputies told Hawlati that if the voting would have been conducted using secret ballots the new cabinet would not have been approved. Before the vote, around 50 deputies submitted a memorandum to the parliamentary speaker (Adnan Mufti) demanding it be conducted with secret ballots, but he refused. Some of the deputies said that if the process was held by secret ballot many (ministerial) candidates would have not been approved and the cabinet would have failed. Kurdistan Mohammed, an MP with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's list, said that he raised his hand to object to one of the candidates, but the speaker said the vote was unanimously approved. The new cabinet has 42 ministers.