ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The New Generation Movement (NGM), the main opposition party in the Kurdistan Region, said on Saturday that it plans to take part in the next Iraqi cabinet. The announcement comes a month after party leader Shaswar Abdulwahid was arrested.
“We will participate in forming the new Iraqi government cabinet and through the Iraqi Council of Ministers, we will solve the problems and difficulties of the citizens of the Kurdistan Region,” the party said in a statement reported by its affiliated media.
The party had previously refrained from joining cabinets in Erbil and Baghdad unless it could play an influential role. It is not joining the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet, which has still not been formed nearly a year after the election.
Iraq will hold legislative elections on November 11.
NGM said that as part of the Iraqi government it would work to regularize salary payments of the KRG’s civil sector, provide loans for youth and recent university graduates, and limit the influence in Baghdad of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) - the two ruling parties in the Kurdistan Region.
Sulaimani security forces arrested Abdulwahid in mid-August, after a judicial decree dated August 3 revealed he had been sentenced in absentia to six months in prison under Article 431 of the Iraqi Penal Code, which pertains to making serious threats against others, their property, or their reputation. A court last week reduced the sentence to five months.
Last Monday the party said Abdulwahid had formed a seven-member board prior to his arrest to run party affairs and make preparations for Iraq's elections.
The NGM is the Kurdistan Region’s most vocal opposition force. Formed by Abdulwahid to contest the 2018 regional elections, it has seen a dramatic rise in popularity and came third in the Kurdistan parliament’s October 20 elections with 15 seats. It won nine seats in the 2021 federal election.