KDP in decisive meeting on new cabinet, PM and president
Tatar said that all members of the leadership council have been called to the meeting. Although it is not yet clear if Barzani will ask the current prime minister Nechirvan Barzani or his son Masrour Barzani to form a government.
Masrour Barzani is the head of the Kurdistan Region’s Security Council. The KDP won 45 seats in the September elections.
According to senior KDP official Nuri Hama Ali, the choice for a new head of government depends on whether or not Erbil reactivates the presidency which was suspended following last year’s independence referendum after Masoud Barzani stepped down as president.
Hama Ali said that if the presidency is reopened Nechirvan Barzani may become president of the Kurdistan Region and Masrour Barzani prime minister.
“Those are just scenarios at this point and not official,” he said. “Changes may happen in the meeting and Barzani has the final word.”
Rudaw has learned that the KDP seeks to reopen the dissolved presidency and its powers through parliament.
“The KDP means to have the presidency and return its powers through the parliament, but a referendum on the constitution is needed for that.” Sirwan Barzani, a KDP leadership member told Rudaw.
With 21 seats, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) also wants its share in the region’s governmental posts.
In return for the presidency the PUK is keeping an eye on some other posts and wants to strengthen its foothold in the government, according to PUK official Mustafa Chawrash.
“Up to this point the topic of the presidency of the Kurdistan Region has not been raised with the PUK,” Chawrash said. “But the PUK has opinions and other demands to make in terms of government posts.”
A KDP leadership council meeting is headed by President Masoud Barzani in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, on December 3, 2018. Video: Rudaw TV
Parallel to its internal meetings the KDP has reached out to other parties on forming a new cabinet, including a major meeting with the PUK and the Change Movement (Gorran) in Sulaimani last month.
Nizar Mahmoud, a Gorran official told Rudaw that his party’s participation in the new government depends on what the KDP may offer them in the next expected meeting between the two parties.
Hoshyar Omar Ali, head of Gorran’s diplomatic relations is said to be his party’s candidate for the post of deputy prime minister, Rudaw has learned, and Ali Hama Salih, an elected Gorran MP for deputy speaker of parliament.
Saadi Ahmed Pira, a PUK leader who often talks to the media as his party’s spokesperson believes that the PUK and KDP have a history of working together, including a 2005 Strategic Agreement between the two that lasted a decade. Therefore, he argues, reaching a new mechanism should be easy.
“We’ve a strategic agreement with the KDP and rewriting that agreement could be a basis for a new alliance,” Pira told Rudaw. “We don’t have to go back to square one.”