“The atmosphere between the KDP and PUK is very good and they may enter the [next] parliamentary session with a single common candidate,” Bangin Rekani, a member of the KDP’s negotiating team in Baghdad told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman, adding that the atmosphere between the two Kurdish parties is “very good.”
Rekani believes that the existing “minor” issues between both parties can be resolved if a meeting occurs between KDP Vice President Nechirvan Barzani and PUK head Bafel Talabani.
Talabani conveyed to the KDP his intention of agreeing on a joint candidate for parliament, according to the KDP official.
Iraq is in the midst of a deep political deadlock. The country has failed to elect a government almost a year after early elections were held in October 2021 due to critical disagreements between different Shiite factions.
Prior to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s resignation from parliament in June, the KDP and the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance were in a tripartite alliance with the influential cleric, known as the Save the Homeland Alliance. Together, they had presented the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Interior Minister Reber Ahmed as their pick for Iraq’s presidency.
The PUK, however, entered an alliance with the pro-Iran Coordination Framework and backed incumbent Barham Salih for president.
Despite Rekani’s comments about the Kurdish political giants agreeing on a joint candidate, it is currently unclear who their pick will be.
Various parties from the Coordination Framework, along with the KDP and the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance, are holding talks with the Sadrist Movement to find a solution and agree on early elections, Rekani mentioned, calling Iraq’s situation “very complicated” and saying there is “no other option.”
“The KDP is working hard to try to get the Sadrists to participate [in the government] … otherwise there will be no peace in Iraq,” he said.
Iraqi political leaders in early September agreed to work towards holding early elections in a meeting boycotted by Sadr.
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