Peshmerga Minister: voting is a defining national and patriotic duty 

Shafaq News/ The Minister of the Peshmerga Affairs, Shoresh Ismail, urged the members of the Peshmerga forces to cast their votes on the Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday to assure and assert their constitutional rights, deeming the participation "a defining national and patriotic duty".

"The polls day is around the corner. I call on everyone to participate in the election to protect and assure your constitutional rights, and the people of Kurdistan's rights," Minister Ismail said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Minister thanked the Peshmerga fighters who did not partake in the electoral campaigns and abided by the military rules and instructions."

"After participating in the election, which is a defining national and patriotic duty, the Peshmerga resume their duties as guards of the safety of the [electoral] process, the Region, and all its people."

"Voting is a constitutional and legal right," he said, "all the Kurds who were in the past a force of peace and protected the experience of Kurdistan with souls and blood... will continue to pursue their effective role in pushing forward democracy in Kurdistan and Iraq via those ballots."