ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said on Thursday that he expects the party to meet with its main rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), in the coming days, amid renewed efforts to end the political deadlock in the Kurdistan Region.
“In the next few days, before Eid [al-Adha] or after the Eid, that meeting will take place and things will move forward,” Rebaz Berkoty, a member of the PUK leadership, told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman.
The four-day Islamic holiday is expected to begin in the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday.
Berkoty added that the PUK’s response to an initiative launched earlier this week by Salahaddin Bahaaddin, leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), had been “positive.”
Bahaaddin recently met with PUK leader Bafel Talabani and KDP deputy president Masrour Barzani, who is also the prime minister of the Kurdistan Region. A senior KIU official said both ruling parties welcomed the initiative, which aims to reactivate parliament and facilitate the formation of a new government.
According to the PUK official, the KIU leader proposed a meeting between the political bureaus of the KDP and PUK.
The Kurdistan Region held parliamentary elections in October 2024, with the KDP winning 39 seats and the PUK securing 23 in the 100-seat legislature. Neither party achieved an outright majority, while opposition groups failed to unite. The New Generation Movement, which won 15 seats, later formed an alliance with the PUK, but government formation talks have remained stalled.
Berkoty said the KDP and PUK must recognize their “historical responsibility.”
“The situation in the Kurdistan Region and the region as a whole requires that both of us shoulder this historical responsibility that is upon us,” he said.
Since the late 1990s, the KDP has maintained de facto control over Erbil and Duhok provinces, while the PUK has dominated Sulaimani province. The two parties have nonetheless shared power through agreements dividing positions within both the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraq’s federal government.
The parties operated separate administrations until formally unifying them in 2007.
Addressing concerns about a possible return to the dual-administration system, Berkoty said, “We do not like to have a divided region.”
“The PUK has officially announced that it is against a dual-administration system,” he added.
In the past three cabinets, the KDP has held the posts of Kurdistan Region president, prime minister, and head of the Region’s judicial council, as well as key positions including the interior ministry and the Department of Foreign Relations.
While the KDP has argued that its share of power should reflect its electoral victories, the PUK has sought major positions in the ongoing negotiations, including the interior ministry.
"We have demanded a true partnership in the future government of the Kurdistan Region," Berkoty said.