ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Gorran will take part in a session on Saturday of the Kurdistan Region parliament that is expected to discuss the issue of the presidency law, a Gorran MP told Rudaw.
The parliament was first scheduled to convene on Thursday, but then postponed to Saturday.
The parliament was first scheduled to convene on Thursday, but then postponed to Saturday.
It will be the first time the party, Kurdistan’s second-largest, has attended a session since the legislative was reactivated in mid-September ahead of the independence referendum. Gorran neither supported nor opposed the vote but called on other parties to accept the US-backed alternative to the referendum.
Bestun Fayaq, from Gorran, said Thursday's session will be about “the presidency law of the Kurdistan Regional Government.”
Disagreements over the law sparked a bitter dispute between Gorran and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) that eventually led to the closure of the parliament in October 2015 and the KDP barring the parliament speaker, a Gorran member, from Erbil.
Gorran advocated for a parliamentary system, while the KDP insisted on a presidential one. President Masoud Barzani, also the head of the KDP, stated in September that he believes the Kurdistan Region should have a parliamentary system.
The KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), two of the ruling parties and allies since 2007, held a high-level meeting on Wednesday. They said the Kurdistan Region needs unity to face current challenges.
Mending fences over the presidency law is something the PUK announced it wanted to do on Tuesday, saying they will work with other parties to settle the controversial issue once and for all, ending a two-year long political deadlock.
Asked about the return of the speaker of the parliament, Yousif Mohammed, Gorran’s MP said only their parliamentary faction will attend the session on Thursday.
Mohammed has not chaired any sessions since he was denied access to the parliament in October 2015.
The parliament on Tuesday extended its current term for eight months and postponed parliamentary and presidential elections that were scheduled for November 1.
Gorran, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), and the newly-founded Coalition of Democracy and Justice (CDJ) have called for the office of the Kurdistan Region presidency to be abolished.
They have also called for the formation of an interim government in the face of the fall of the oil-rich disputed Kirkuk to Iraqi forces. The PUK and KDP have rejected the notion.
