ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Leaders of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) are expected to meet along with other factions in the “coming days,” a senior member of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) said Thursday, amid a continuing impasse over forming the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) next cabinet.
Mohammed Hawdiani told Rudaw that the long-awaited meeting “will break the political deadlock and establish an appropriate mechanism to reactivate the parliament and form the new government cabinet,” adding that both ruling parties have “positively” responded to the mediating efforts by his party.
The political deadlock between the two parties comes as they have failed to form the Region’s tenth cabinet, even 20 months after the elections were held.
The KDP won 39 seats, and the PUK held 23 in the elections, with neither side able to secure an absolute majority. With both sides reportedly presenting irreconcilable demands, the formation of the KRG cabinet has yet to take place.
However, Saadi Ahmad Pira, PUK’s political bureau member, told Rudaw on Tuesday that as far as he knows, “no exact date has been selected” for their meeting with the KDP.
“Meetings are pointless if they are only meant to schedule other meetings without reaching a result or making progress,” he said, adding that “there are no changes in the stances until now.”
Disagreements between the ruling parties largely culminated in the division of senior positions as well as governance structures in the Kurdistan Region.
KIU’s leader, Salahaddin Bahaaddin, began an initiative in late April to bring the KDP and PUK to the negotiating table.
PUK seeks to get either the premiership or the Region’s presidency in addition to key ministerial posts, including the ministers of oil and interior - posts that have been traditionally held by the KDP.
However, what further strained their relations was PUK’s decision to collude with the New Generation Movement (NGM), an opposition party with 15 seats, in February 2025 and thus enter negotiations with the KDP as a single bloc with 38 seats.
The PUK and NGM officially signed the agreement in early July. In its preamble, both parties stressed that the purpose of the agreement is “to restore balance and reorganize the balance of power in the political landscape of the Kurdistan Region.”
The KDP views the coalition as an attempt to undermine its influence and weaken its hold on power. It has categorically rejected the agreement, stressing that it will not engage in government formation talks with the group as a single bloc, but only with its individual parties separately.
"For the formation of the government, we deal with our comrades in the PUK as the PUK; the issue of the New Generation is a separate matter,” Ahmad Kani, member of KDP’s Central Committee, told Rudaw in late May.
