ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Region’s two major parties have reached an accord on government posts, agreeing that the interior ministry should go to the Change Movement (Gorran) and getting dramatically closer to forming a new cabinet.
Rudaw has learned that leaders of the Change Movement (Gorran) have relinquished their demand for the regional vice presidency, accepting instead the position of parliament speaker.
Another major concession Gorran has managed, after some 20 rounds of talks on the government formation, is control of the interior ministry, one of the most important ministries of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The post of deputy prime minister will go instead to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which won the highest votes in last September’s parliamentary polls, agreed to give Gorran the interior ministry on condition that Gorran’s candidate for minister is accepted unanimously by all parties, mainly the KDP itself.
Negotiations between political groups have been dragging since mid-November, when KDP’s candidate for the post of prime minister, the incumbent Nechirvan Barzani, began talks with a visit to Gorran’s main bureau in Sulaimani.
Reaching an agreement on ministerial posts has not been easy. The KDP has had to take into account its former ally the PUK, which came third at the polls, after Gorran.
Throughout the talks, Gorran leaders had insisted on getting the interior ministry. Leaders of the group, which was created after breaking away from the PUK in 2009, are keen to get out of the opposition and into government.
Gorran has run on a reformist agenda, promising mainly to uproot widespread official corruption.
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