SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Democratic Party will grant the first choice of partnership in the next government to its strategic ally and coalition partner the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), KDP leadership council member Ali Awni said.
“To start the negotiations the KDP will first approach the PUK. In case there is no fruitful outcome to the negotiations with the PUK, we will then approach other parties,” Awni said, granting a glimpse into the horse-trading to form autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan’s next government, following elections in September for the regional parliament.
“If the PUK chooses to stay as our partner in the government, we will jointly initiate negotiations with other parties,” Awni said. “In case of PUK’s refusal to stay as our partner, we will approach other parties to reach the legal measure to form the government,” he explained.
Formal negotiations on forming the next cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have been delayed because the final official count has yet to be announced. No significant differences are expected from the unofficial count, which has placed KDP in top position with 38 seats, not too far shy of the 56 seats needed to form the government.
At the polls, voters trounced the PUK. It won only 18 seats, while the rival and breakaway Change Movement (Gorran) grabbed 24, taking the PUK’s place as the Kurdistan Region’s second-largest party.
That means that the KDP can form a government with Gorran or any of the small opposition parties. Although voters clearly want Gorran in government, the KDP may prefer a weak PUK to a strong Gorran, which has promised government reform.
According to political tradition, Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani will ask the KDP nominee to form the new government.
Awni said that, in reaching out to the PUK once more, the KDP was not just seeking to secure the legal measure to form the government.
The PUK, which has chafed under the KDP’s dominance throughout the four years it has remained in the partnership government, says it may consider another four years of married life with the KDP.
“The PUK has not decided whether it is going to be part of the next government or not. But the majority of PUK leadership is for participating in the government, because it is not the time yet for PUK to become an opposition group,” said Farid Assasard, a senior PUK official.
But a Gorran party official warned that, “If PUK participates in the next cabinet and agrees to leave Gorran out, it will face another four years of frustration, even worse than the previous four years, because PUK is no longer the dominant party in Sulaimani.”
Assasard rejected the claim, saying there are new developments and the success of the next cabinet depends on the participation of the five winning parties.
He also revealed that the opposition groups do not want to negotiate with the KDP separately, but as a common group. He said that the PUK will not be a KDP partner in those negotiations, as it had been in the formation of the previous cabinet.
“This time PUK will act as an independent party and will not participate in KDP’s negotiations with the opposition parties. It is the KDP’s sole responsibility to negotiate with other parties,” Assasard added.
An opposition source confirmed it was true that the parties want to negotiate with the KDP as a single front. “The opposition is worried that the KDP might approach the three opposition parties separately, therefore the opposition prefers to negotiate with the KDP as one group,” the source said.
Earlier this week, Massoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Region said that, “the formation of the next cabinet will depend on the negotiation process.”
Nazim Abdulla, a member of Kurdistan Islamic Group, warned that “if the KDP disregards the opposition’s agenda for the next government, the process of forming the cabinet will be more difficult.”
“The political changes from the election are very clear to us. Disregarding PUK as a partner is as hard as disregarding Gorran’s 24 parliamentary seats,” Awni concluded.
Comments
12 5 Slemani | 29/10/2013
The PDK have a big history, this party led most of the revolutions in south Kurdistan and Kurdistan improved very fast under the rule of the PDK. These are the factors why the PDK won the elections. The PDK had the biggest increase of its votes. All other parties lost some seats, YNK lost 12 seats, Gorran lost also one seat compared to the 2009 elections. Only the PDK and Islamic parties could increase their votes.
