ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kirkuk governorship and other posts that Kurds secured after agreements made in last week’s disputed provincial council session will be exchanged in two years with the positions the other components received, the spokesperson for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said on Tuesday.
“There are two columns: In one column, the PUK picks the governor and the posts that come with it for two years. In the other, the Arabs pick the provincial council chief and the posts that come with it for two years. After two years, all the posts will be exchanged,” PUK spokesperson Saadi Ahmed Pira told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih on Tuesday.
The deadlock over forming Kirkuk’s local administration was brought to an end in a controversial manner on August 10, after the PUK and four provincial councilors allied with the party held a previously-unannounced meeting in Baghdad and appointed Rebwar Taha as the governor and Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hafidh, a Sunni Arab politician, as the provincial council chief.
No council members from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Turkmen Front, or the Arab Alliance were present during the meeting, and the parties have deemed the session to be in violation of the law.
The KDP has indirectly accused the PUK of compromising the “Kurdishness” of Kirkuk over the agreements the party has made to secure the governorship post.
“Those rumors are meaningless. They are baseless,” Pira said in response to reports claiming that the PUK has relinquished several major posts in Kirkuk in return for the governorship.
Following the vote in December, the KDP repeatedly called for the appointment of a Kurdish governor with no strong affiliation to any party and said the new administration must be formed on the basis of a national consensus.
Pira said that the PUK welcomes any initiative from any party to hold the next provincial council session, adding that the party is ready to reach an agreement with the KDP in Kirkuk, and has already made efforts towards that end.
The formation of Kirkuk’s provincial government took more than seven months and was hindered by the absence of a clear majority between the parties after the elections and disputes.
It is unclear when the council will convene next.
The Arab Alliance and the Turkmen Front have filed complaints to the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court against the decisions that came out of the disputed council meeting, and have denied reports suggesting they would be joining the alliance of the council members that attended the session.
