ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has decided on March 7, 2018 as the date to hold its congress, following the death of its leader and founder Jalal Talabani in early October this year, Hero Ibrahim Ahmed announced in a statement to PUK media outlets.
“Holding the congress is a necessity for the party and renewing and reorganizing the structure of the PUK,” Ahmed said. “It is also a right call from our cadres and members and that call must be fulfilled. Therefore we found it necessary to hold our fourth congress on March 7.”
The controversial question of the congress was a heated topic among members of the PUK after the party’s politburo failed to set a date for the process following the death of Talabani on October 3.
The announcement also comes at a time when the PUK’s top leader Kosrat Rasul is receiving medical treatment in Germany.
Commenting on preparations for the congress, Hakim Qadir Hamajan, member of the PUK politburo said on Sunday that “the high committee tasked with making preparations for the PUK’s fourth congress has finished most of the work.”
The PUK has been plagued by rifts in its leadership. Last year, Rasul and his then deputy Barham Salih denounced what they called an unethical group within the party leadership and announced the formation of a decision-making body.
In September, Salih broke away from the PUK and established his own political entity, the Coalition for Democracy and Justice.
Following the fall of Kirkuk, PUK leaders received mounting criticism. The party announced on October 24 that it had opened an internal investigation into what went wrong on October 16 in the oil-rich province.
The PUK is one of the two main ruling parties of the Kurdistan Region that has strong influence over the Peshmerga and security forces in the provinces of Sulaimani and Halabja.
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