SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - With provincial elections out of the way and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) claiming overwhelming victory so far, leaders of the group are once again talking of joining the Kurdish government that has yet to be formed.
Members of the PUK leadership met on Saturday in Sulaimani, where they discussed the pros and cons of participation in the eighth cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has still not been formed, almost eight months after the regional parliamentary polls in September.
According to PUK media, the leaders have exchanged views and offered suggestions, but left the final decision to the party’s top leaders.
After the meeting, a senior PUK member said a decision still had not been made over whether the party would join the next cabinet.
A PUK negotiating team, led by the party’s deputy chief Barham Salih is expected to meet with counterparts from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Sunday.
Over the past eight months, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who has a leader of the KDP has been tasked by his party to form the next cabinet, has been negotiating with the PUK and other groups with the aim of putting together a coalition government.
In mid April, the Change Movement (Gorran) and the Islamic League (Komal) signed their deals with Barzani to join the government, later joined by the Islamic Union (Yekgirtu).
However, the PUK leaders have resisted entry into a broad-based government, demanding control of the Interior Ministry, which the KDP has reserved for itself as the winner of the September polls.
Following Saturday’s meeting, Rafaat Abdullah, a member of the PUK political bureau, said that his colleagues have debated the possible establishment of a new Ministry of Security, which could then be given to the PUK.
Abdullah said that the new ministry is a KDP idea.
If it goes through, the ministry of security will replace what already exists as the Security Agency.
Meanwhile, the PUK has been offered the post of vice president, which Abdullah said has yet to be filled by a candidate from his party.
“Up to this point we haven’t made a decision about participating or not in the government,” Abdullah maintained.
He said that by Monday the PUK leadership assembly might come up with a final decision.
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