ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have held several meetings “away from media attention” and are set to hold another in the “coming days”, a KDP official said Sunday, as the deadlock to form the government persists. 

The KDP and PUK emerged as the two largest parties in the October 2024 parliamentary elections, winning 39 and 23 seats respectively. However, negotiations to form the next Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet have repeatedly stalled.

Ali Hussein, a member of the KDP Political Bureau, said the two sides have recently held several meetings “away from media attention,” adding, “This week the KDP and PUK will meet, and there will be positive outcomes.”

In December 2024, newly elected Kurdish lawmakers were sworn in during the first session of the new parliament cycle. Despite this, no subsequent sessions have been held since, and the parliament has remained inactive for over a year and a half.

In the following months, the KDP and the PUK, as the elections’ chief victors, held several rounds of negotiations aimed at forming the next KRG cabinet, but the efforts failed to bear fruit. 

The KDP blamed the non-agreement on the PUK’s insistence on securing several top posts, which the ruling party deemed not reflective of the results of the elections and the vote of the Kurdish public.

Earlier in July, PUK leader Bafel Talabani and Shaswar Abdulwahid, leader of the New Generation Movement (NGM), finalized a deal to work together as an alliance in the upcoming KRG cabinet, without explicitly stating an intention to exclude the KDP from the cabinet.

In early June, the PUK had said it would negotiate with the KDP alongside the NGM as “one package.” However, the KDP has reportedly insisted on negotiating with the PUK and NGM as separate political parties rather than recognizing their alliance as a single bloc.

Hussein also said that the NGM had contacted him “personally” and requested giving their 15 seats in parliament to the KDP, “so that together we could form a 50+1 government without the PUK, but we refused.”

He said that his party “believes the KDP and PUK complement each other, and forming a government without the PUK would create a void in the governance process.”

The KDP and PUK, though rival parties, have traditionally formed and run the KRG together.