ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Political relations between Kurdistan Region’s two ruling parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - have effectively collapsed, a senior PUK official said Sunday. This comes amid a continuing impasse over forming the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) next cabinet.
“Currently, there is no political relationship between the PUK and the KDP," Luqman Wardi, a member of the PUK leadership, told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on Sunday, adding that: "There is no dialogue, except when an international or regional power intervenes between us.”
The political deadlock between the two parties comes as they have failed to form the Region’s tenth cabinet, even 18 months after the elections were held.
The Kurdistan Region held its parliamentary elections in October 2024, in which the KDP won 39 of the 100 seats and the PUK secured 23. With no party achieving a majority, negotiations to form a new cabinet have stalled for months, largely due to disagreements over key political posts and governing arrangements.
Kurdish opposition parties - the New Generation Movement, the Kurdistan Islamic Union, and the National Stance Movement - hold 15, 4, and 2 seats, respectively, while the Kurdistan Region Alliance and the Change Movement each hold one seat. Five additional seats are reserved for minority quotas.
Wardi said PUK President Bafel Talabani has made repeated efforts to reach an agreement with KDP leadership, including multiple meetings with KDP leader Masoud Barzani.
“Just before the recent regional complications, President Bafel sat with Mr. Masoud three times. In two of those meetings, Mr. [President] Nechirvan Barzani and [Deputy Prime Minister] Qubad Talabani also participated, but the KDP was not ready for an agreement,” Wardi claimed, adding that Talabani had visited Barzani “16 times” in total to try to resolve the disputes.