ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Bafel Talabani met on Thursday to discuss government formation talks, a senior Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official said. This marks their first meeting since the October 20 elections.
Barzani, who is also a deputy leader of the KDP, and Talabani had “frank & constructive discussions" and the meeting took place on a "one-on-one basis,” Hoshyar Zebari, a senior KDP official, said in a post on X.
Last week, delegations from the KDP and PUK continued government formation talks in Erbil for the third consecutive day, discussing the division of leadership roles in the next cabinet.
Zebari, who is a member of the KDP’s government formation negotiation team, added that the Thursday meeting “was in line with the negotiation process between KDP-PUK to form the new KRG government ASAP.”
The Kurdistan Region held its long-overdue elections in October, resulting in a consolidation of power for the ruling KDP which won 39 spots in the 100-seat legislature, followed by the PUK with 23.
No single party won a majority in the parliament, meaning a governing coalition will have to be formed, as has historically been the case. The KDP and PUK, while rivals, also have shared power in government since the establishment of the Kurdistan Region in the nineties.
During last year's election campaign, Talabani positioned himself as a strong critic of the current cabinet, frequently directing his rhetoric at Prime Minister Barzani.
Following the October 20 elections, the Region’s political parties adopted a more cooperative tone, except for a few opposition parties which have maintained their claims of electoral fraud.
