ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) delegations are set to meet in Erbil on Tuesday to discuss the latest steps for the formation of the tenth cabinet of the Kurdistan Region, two days after Prime Minister and Deputy President of the KDP Masrour Barzani, and PUK leader Bafel Talabani met in the Kurdistan Region capital city, describing their meeting as “very” positive.

 

The KDP and PUK emerged as the main parties from the October 20 parliamentary elections, gaining 39 and 23 seats respectively.  The two parties appear poised to form the government, as most of the other parties have already declared their opposition.

 

Prime Minister Barzani and Talabani hailed their Sunday meeting in Erbil to discuss the formation of the tenth cabinet as “very positive,” with both sides hoping the government would be formed as soon as possible. 

“There were very good developments and very good understandings on most of the subjects, and we hope [technical] teams with the same spirit can reach a complete agreement on the formation of the government soon,” PM Barzani said. 

 

PUK leader Talabani for his part hailed the meeting as “very, very good.”

 

“We agreed on a number of strategic things that are of high importance to our nation,” Talabani said, hoping for the talks to continue. 

 

“The objective for both of us is to form a government to serve our nation.” 

 

The New Region understands that PM Barzani, who is also deputy president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and Talabani discussed the matter of the distribution of posts and the two parties' shares in the next cabinet in today’s meeting.

 

The Kurdistan Region’s newly-elected members of parliament were sworn in early December, officially commencing their legislative duties. By law, the lawmakers were supposed to elect a speaker during the first session, but the vote was not carried out due to failure to reach the legal quorum.