PUK gets Iraqi Kurdistan parliament speaker post and deputy PM in new government

2019-02-09 00:00:00 - Source: Iraq News

Iraqi Kurdistan parliament, 2015. Photo: Perleman

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) will take the positions of Iraqi Kurdistan parliament speaker and deputy prime minister, the spokesperson of the PUK Saad Ahmad Pira said during a press conference on Saturday.

The announcement comes following a meeting of the PUK politburo.

“The parliament will convene and the Kurdistan Region’s presidency law will be reactivated on February 18,” he said.

The agreement will be signed in the coming hours, according to Pira. He added that there had been no decision regarding the government in Kirkuk.

The meeting was chaired by PUK deputy secretary general Kosrat Rasul and the politburo members discussed the potential political agreement between the PUK and KDP.

“The KDP had agreed to give the post of Parliament Speaker to the PUK, first deputy for its party, and second deputy to minorities,” the temporary speaker of Iraqi Kurdistan’s parliament Reving Hruri told the KDP website.

“We are waiting for the parties to send the name of their candidates,” said Hruri, who was selected as the interim speaker because he is the eldest lawmaker in the current term.

Speaker Hruri also commented that although the names of some candidates ”are echoed” among lawmakers, none have so far been officially offered for voting in the upcoming session.

Regarding his party’s candidate, Hruri said that the KDP has not revealed the identity, but it will do so at the appropriate time, adding that his party has never had problems with choosing candidates for various positions.

Among lawmakers from minority communities, the second deputy post is most likely to go to a Turkmen candidate, according to members of the bloc who have repeatedly told Kurdistan 24 that they had already secured the post in negotiations with the leading KDP.

Up until Saturday’s announcement, officials from neither the KDP nor the PUK had confirmed or revealed any information regarding the allocation of the key posts in the regional parliament.

Last Tuesday, the parties met and decided to schedule a parliamentary session for February 18, in order to elect a permanent speaker.

They also agreed to hold a meeting of the Kirkuk Provincial Council. That meeting will take place in Erbil because KDP officials refuse to travel to Kirkuk. The meeting location has been a sticking point in the past, with the PUK resisting that demand by the KDP.

All the other parties on the Council have continued to advocate for the meeting to take place in Kirkuk.

In September 2018, the autonomous Kurdistan Region held its parliamentary election, with parties competing for 111 seats in total. The Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) won the election by securing 45 seats and was followed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) with 21 seats and Gorran (Change) with 12.

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