Parties stall negotiations to form Kurdistan cabinet

Erbil (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s two leading parties have indefinitely delayed a meeting on forming the next cabinet that had been planned for Tuesday, an informed political source said.

Talks were set to take place in Erbil between high-level delegations of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to discuss progress so far made in agreeing to the makeup of the regional government.

A political source told Kurdistan 24 that the postponement of the meeting came at the request of the PUK but did not elaborate further.

This comes at a time when the PUK and the Change (Gorran) Movement continue to jockey for posts in the new cabinet, which they seek to enter in coalition with the KDP.

Out of a total 111 seats in the Kurdistan Parliament, the KDP won 45 in the September 2018 regional election. The PUK followed with 21 seats and Gorran came in third with 12, half of the seats they enjoyed in the previous parliament. The three parties have each said they've created multiple negotiating teams to explore different aspects of the talks.

As is the norm in Iraqi politics, disagreement and delay on a new cabinet are chiefly the result of haggling about which parties' members are allotted which government positions.

Parties appeared, so far, to have little to show in terms of progress made during four rounds of negotiations since talks first began in mid-December.

The KDP has taken some initiative by visiting both the PUK and Gorran offices in Sulaimani, where the two parties enjoy the most influence.

Recent developments suggest that the KDP’s vision is most in line with Gorran, with which they have a “mutual understanding regarding the critical issues at hand,” according to comments made after one of the meetings by KDP politburo member and former Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Sources from the KDP’s negotiating group have previously stated that the PUK wants to reach an "all-or-nothing agreement" regarding the new KRG cabinet, disputed territories, and posts in the Iraqi federal government which still has the two coveted security posts unfilled eight months after the national election.

The KDP has said it prefers to address national posts and other topics not directly related to regional government formation separately. 

Editing by John J. Catherine