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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region’s two top parties met last week in a bid to resolve their differences and while the results of the meeting are yet to be made public or be seen on the ground, the Region’s deputy prime minister on Monday told Rudaw that it is normal for those differences to remain, as each party has a different political view.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have been the top ruling parties in the Kurdistan Region for exactly thirty years, since the formation of the first Kurdish cabinet in 1992.
The relationship between the two parties has endured several rocky periods, such as a full-on armed fight against each other in the mid-nineties, up to recent social media wars between different officials from the parties.
While the Kurdish public has on many occasions found the disagreements between the two parties alarming, Qubad Talabani, who has been serving as deputy to the Kurdistan Region’s prime minister since 2014, but is also a senior member of the PUK leadership and son to former PUK Secretary General, the late Jalal Talabani, denied that such differences should be a reason for concern when they are in fact, normal.
“The PUK and the KDP are two different political parties, they both have history, it is very normal to have different opinions, it is very normal to have disagreements,” Talabani told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman.
Both sides have on several occasions criticized the other’s form of governance, but when push came to shove, they were able to sit around the same table and form a mutual government cabinet.
The two parties met again last week following a visit by the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani to Sulaimani, where the PUK has its main support stronghold.
According to Talabani, what the politburos of the two parties discussed in their latest meeting was how to set aside their disagreements and not to allow them to obstruct their meeting.
“We need to understand that nowhere in the world, two competing parties agree on everything,” Talabani said.
The KDP and the PUK controlled different parts of the Kurdistan Region for years before the US invasion of Iraq. Each had their local governments, with the PUK ruling Sulaimani province, and the KDP ruling Erbil and Duhok.
Following a reconciliation agreement signed by the parties' leaders with US mediation in 1998, the dual administration continued until the fall of Saddam Hussein, after which the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) became one.
However, despite the strong borders between the two parties' areas of influence lightening over the years, to date, one has to pass through multiple checkpoints of the PUK and KDP when travelling from Sulaimani to Erbil, with the distance between the parties' checkpoints at certain points being less than three kilometers.
"What I am embarrassed of and think should be solved is not the different colors, but the fact that there should not be any checkpoints between these areas," Talabani said. "I am ready to remove those checkpoints."
"I will initiate the idea because I want those different checkpoints removed, let us have a single joint checkpoint," he added.
Tensions between the PUK and KDP resurfaced following the Iraqi elections in October last year. Though there have almost always been disagreements on different topics, the run for the Iraqi presidency brought the tensions out of the closed room meetings, and into the public’s eyes.
The PUK has filed incumbent Barham Salih for the position, a candidate not particularly desired by the KDP, and contrary to years of a customary agreement that has given the PUK the Iraqi presidency and the KDP the Kurdistan Region presidency and premiership, the KDP has also filed a candidate of their own this time.
Both parties are in different political alliances in the Iraqi parliament, and with the support of their allies, they have delayed the election of a new president several times over the past seven months, with neither party agreeing to withdraw their candidate, the Iraqi political process has been stuck in a deadlock.
The PUK are insistent on their candidate, and see the presidency as a position that their supporters expect from them.
“We have a candidate, it is Mr. Barham Salih, and God willing, he will be the President,” Talabani said. “Today, PUK's followers, members, and leadership ask that the position remains a PUK position.”
But the KDP’s run for the Iraqi presidency has also triggered more ambitions for the PUK, who no longer seems to be willing to abide by the years long customary agreement.
The PUK’s leader on Saturday made the party’s intentions clear.
“The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan will have candidates for the prime minister and [Kurdistan] Region’s president positions but after the PUK wins the position of [Iraqi] president. Our objective is to become the number one party,” Bafel Talabani told members of his party.
The statements from Bafel Talabani come as the Region is preparing to hold elections later in the year.
The Kurdistan Region’s general elections are scheduled for October 1 but there are arguments about the electoral commission, election law, and electoral roll, and similar to many other topics, the PUK and KDP are on opposing sides again.
The PUK is rooting for a multiple constituency election, while the KDP wants a single constituency for the whole Region. But regardless of the different opinions, Deputy Prime Minister Talabani sees the Region’s elections are “difficult” to be held on time.
“Truth be told, it is difficult,” Talabani said, addressing whether the elections will be held on time.
“We hope that elections are held … The PUK is with the arrangement of elections as soon as possible, but there are comments on some of the files that may be an obstacle in front of holding elections,” he said, adding that it is not only his party, but the majority of the political parties who have their notes on the electoral system.
Efforts to de-escalate tensions continue following mediation initiated by President Barzani.
The KDP, which gained 45 seats in the Kurdistan Regional parliament in 2018 in compare to the PUK’s 21 seats, aims to maintain control in the Region and keep the presidency and the premiership, but the PUK who for years always had a slice of the cake, this time wants a slice bigger than usual.
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