“We have complained and taken stances against the actions and management of this cabinet headed by Masrour Barzani. Our complaints are the complaints of the people,” read a statement from the PUK team in the KRG, adding “unfortunately, this cabinet has been the worst in the history of Kurdistan’s governance.”
The statement from the PUK referred to Barzani’s readout as “full of deception,” claiming it was proof that he “does not want to be prime minister of all of the Kurdistan Region.”
The Kurdistan Region’s two main ruling parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the PUK, have for decades disagreed over a variety of issues, sometimes leading to major unrests in the Region.
Despite working together in the KRG, the two parties have established control over different parts of the Region, often being referred to as the “Yellow Zones” and “Green Zones.“ The KDP is dominant in Erbil and Duhok provinces, while the PUK rules Sulaimani and Halabja.
In his statement, Barzani had denied the PUK’s claim that a “blockade” has been imposed on the border of Sulaimani, saying that oil revenues of the Kurdistan Region and the “occasional” budget received from Baghdad are distributed equally among the provinces of the Region.
The PUK responded to Barzani’s remarks, stressing that a blockade has been placed on Sulaimani “by design,” adding that the non-payment of Sulaimani’s financial entitlements and the delay in paying the salaries of Sulaimani civil servants are a part of that blockade.
Barzani accused the PUK of interfering in the process of collecting the local income of the areas under its influence “for their own gain,” calling the party “responsible” for the current situation in those areas.
The PUK stated that the main issue facing the Kurdistan Region was the lack of transparency in the Region’s oil income, and not local income, nonetheless proceeding to accuse the KRG of not monitoring the income of the border crossings in areas under the influence of the KDP.
In response to the Kurdish prime minister’s call for new parliamentary elections and the reactivation of High Electoral Commission, the PUK said that they are willing to hold new polls once the elections law has been amended.
Members of the Kurdistan Region’s parliament in October voted by a majority to extend the current four-year term of the legislature by one year, after disagreements between the blocs over the current elections law and the electoral commission prevented the carrying out of new elections.
