ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the opposition New Generation Movement (NGM) announced on Wednesday that their alliance “remains open” to government formation talks, signaling adherence to their earlier position of entering the negotiations as a single bloc - which has been categorically rejected by the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) - amid a two-year-long political impasse.
The door for talks with the PUK and NGM alliance is open to “all sides” based “on the new reality that has emerged in the Kurdistan Region,” the parties said in a joint statement.
This comes as both parties signed a “comprehensive” agreement in July for cementing an alliance and dividing political shares in Erbil and Baghdad.
According to the statement, both parties expressed readiness to form the tenth cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “based on election merits,” while emphasizing the establishment of a government “acceptable to the people of the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and the international community, and one that possesses fundamental solutions to the issues between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq."
The statement was released after a Wednesday summit meeting between the PUK leader Bafel Jalal Talabani and NGM’s chief Shaswar Abdulwahid along with political bureau members from both sides in Sulaimani.
The PUK’s 23 seats and NGM’s 15 give the alliance a combined 38 seats, broadening its legislative foothold in the 100-seat Kurdistan Parliament in which the KDP boasts 39 seats.
The KDP squarely rejects the alliance and has proposed to negotiate with each party separately.
This comes amid a political deadlock in the Kurdistan Region’s 10th cabinet formation since elections in October 2024 due to disagreements between the KDP and PUK on the Region’s governance structure as well as the division of key posts.
The PUK and NGM reportedly requested a fifty-fifty division of senior positions, including the KRG premiership and presidency - posts that have traditionally been held by the KDP.
"We inform all parties that the delay in government formation directly affects the lives, livelihoods, and future of the Kurdistan Region,” the PUK and NGM said in their Wednesday joint statement, warning that “any party” that acts as “an obstacle” to forming the government “will be held accountable before the people of the Kurdistan Region and for whatever unfolds in the future."
Meanwhile, the KDP ascertains that the alliance lacks legitimacy given that it was forged as Abdulwahid served a five-month sentence in a PUK-held prison after his arrest in mid-August 2025.
Speaking in an interview with Rudaw which aired on Tuesday, the KDP political bureau member Hoshyar Zebari said there is a “serious effort” to break the deadlock.
Both the KDP and PUK “have realized that the current situation is dangerous for the Kurdistan Region,” he noted.
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