Diplomats To Meet Kurdistan Parliament Presidency
Consuls and diplomatic missions in the Kurdistan Region will be briefed on the legal steps behind the reactivation, a day after the parliament elected its presidency
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - A delegation of envoys and diplomatic missions in the Kurdistan Region is set to visit the Kurdistan Parliament on Thursday and meet its new presidency, according to information obtained by Kurdistan 24.
The presidency is expected to present to the diplomats the legal steps and procedures taken to reactivate parliament, stress the importance of the institution’s return to carrying out its legal and oversight duties in the Region’s system of governance, and explain the details of Wednesday’s session.
The visit comes after the parliament, more than two years after the sixth-term election, met on Wednesday with a majority of members, part of the blocs and independent lawmakers attending, and elected its speaker, deputy speaker and secretary in what the text provided calls a legal process, ending two years of paralysis. Fifty-two lawmakers attended, just above the 51 required, and they unanimously elected the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Vala Farid as speaker, Christian quota lawmaker Rami Nouri as deputy speaker and Turkmen Reform Party lawmaker Mona Qahwachi as secretary, according to Iraqi media. It was the first quorum since the opening session on December 2, 2024.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and its ally New Generation Movement, 32 lawmakers in all, boycotted the session, as did the National Stance Movement, the Kurdistan Islamic Union and Komal, but members of several of those blocs broke ranks to attend.
Farid said at a press conference that the session was held according to the law and the bylaws, and that the elected board is “not temporary” but permanent. She said the presidency will initiate legal procedures to nominate the Region’s president and the tenth cabinet.
The legislature is now due to elect a president and a prime minister, AFP reported. The KDP won 39 of the 100 seats in the October 2024 election, the PUK 23 and New Generation 15.
The KDP bloc said at its press conference that reactivation is not against any side, and called on all blocs to return to the chamber. The PUK has called the session illegal and says the KDP and PUK must first agree on the distribution of top posts. A PUK member who is also a senior media adviser to parliament did not dispute the session’s legality but said anything done outside consensus is not good. Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the parliament on October 26 and set December 14 to hear a separate case asking it to declare the Kurdistan Regional Government a caretaker government. The current cabinet, formed in 2019 under Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, remains in office.
Diplomats have followed the parliament’s work closely. Nineteen consuls general and diplomats attended its opening session in December 2024, according to Kurdistan 24.