Gov. formation: KDP to meet Islamic, communist parties on Thursday

A high-level delegation from the Kurdistan Region’s leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) will meet with the Islamic and communist parties on Thursday to discuss government formation for the first time since the Sept. 30 election.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A high-level delegation from the Kurdistan Region’s leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) will meet with the Islamic and communist parties on Thursday to discuss government formation for the first time since the Sept. 30 election.

The KDP’s high-ranking negotiation delegation will meet the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), also known as Komal in Kurdish, to consider their views on the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) new cabinet, a KDP source told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday.

KIG, headed by Kurdish cleric Ali Bapir, secured seven seats in the recent parliamentary election out of the 111-seat Kurdistan Region Parliament.

The KDP, which won the election by a large margin, secured 45 seats, followed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) with 21, and Gorran (Change) with 12.

On Thursday, the KDP delegation will also visit the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), known as Yekgirtu in Kurdish, whose seats were halved in the election (five), despite forming an electoral coalition with the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (KIM).

The KIU’s leadership had already decided to serve as part of the opposition for this term of parliament.

The KDP will also meet with the Communist Party of Kurdistan, which preserved its single parliamentary seat in the Sept. 30 election, to hear their take on the new government that Masrour Barzani, the current Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC), will head.

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.

The KDP’s planned visit to the three parties comes after several rounds of separate negotiations with the PUK and Gorran.

The leading party, headed by Masoud Barzani, has repeatedly said it will build a strong government and encouraged the parties who participate in the new cabinet to share responsibilities and avoid leaving half-way into the government term.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany