“In today’s politburo meeting, the PUK decided that a high-level party delegation will officially attend the swearing-in ceremony of Nechirvan Barzani, the president-elect of the Kurdistan Region,” Latif Sheikh Omer, the PUK’s spokesperson, told Rudaw on Sunday.
“The deputy secretary general Kosrat Rasul Ali, Hakim Qadir, Omer Fatah, and Arsalan Baiyz, politburo members, will attend the ceremony,” he added.
Iraqi President Barham Salih, a senior PUK member, has also received a formal invitation to the ceremony, but he is yet to announce his intention to attend.
The PUK bloc in the Kurdistan Region parliament, which boycotted the May 28 session when Barzani was elected, will also be present at the ceremony, taking place at the Saad Abdullah Palace Conference Centre.
Just three days ago, PUK officials said they would only attend the ceremony if Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) shows it is willing to implement their March 4 agreement on who should become governor of Kirkuk province.
The PUK is adamant the next governor of the disputed province must be PUK member.
It is not clear why the PUK has now chosen to attend.
Both parties had reached an agreement on May 5 to speed up the formation of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet.
Part of the March 4 agreement was aimed at speeding up of the appointment of a governor for Kirkuk, a province which has been missing a cohesive government since October 2017.
It had initially been agreed that a PUK official would be appointed, but the KDP had apparently pushed for the more neutral choice of Faraydun Abdulqadir – a former PUK member now standing as an independent.
