KDP congratulates PUK, Bafel Talabani following party congress

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Wednesday congratulated the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and its president Bafel Talabani following the party’s congress.

The KDP congratulated the party on the election of Talabani as president as well as the new leadership council, which consists of 60 members.

“We hope the congress’s outcome and decision would be transformational in cementing ties and serving the national high interests,” the ruling said in a statement, a copy of which has been seen by Kurdistan 24.

The Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Tuesday similarly congratulated the party and its president for the “successful” congress. Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani has also congratulated the party recently.

Read More: PM Barzani congratulates PUK president, leadership

The party on Sunday concluded its fifth congress in Sulaimani, where Bafel Talabani was elected the party’s president. Sixty members were elected to the PUK Leadership Council.

The PUK is the second-largest party in the Kurdistan Region. It currently holds the deputy premiership in the KRG ninth cabinet, led by Prime Minister Barzani.

It was founded by the late Jalal Talabani and his comrades on June 1, 1975, in Syria’s Damascus.

Following the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein from power by the US-led coalition, Jalal Talabani, the PUK's secretary-general, became the first Kurdish president of Iraq in 2005 until 2012. He later died of a stroke in Berlin in 2017.