ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and some other political parties, who collectively have nine out of 16 seats and elected the governor of Kirkuk two weeks ago in Baghdad after weeks of wrangling, have called on boycotting members to take part in the next meeting of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, through official correspondences. 

Nearly eight months after Iraq held its provincial council elections, Rebwar Taha, a PUK member, was elected the governor of Kirkuk in a meeting on August 10 that was attended by five PUK members, three Arabs, and a Christian quota representative. The session was boycotted by two Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) members, three members of Arab Sovereignty Alliance, and two Turkmen representatives.

Soon after the outcome of the meeting, the boycotting parties deemed it a violation of the law and vowed to challenge it at the Iraqi judiciary. 

The Arabs and Turkmen each believe the governor position belongs to their community, while the KDP is with the idea that the postition must have been decided through consensus, given the city's unique diverse ethnic background. 

The appointment of PUK's Taha means the return of the position to Kurds for the first time since 2017.

The Kirkuk Provincial council held its first meeting on Saturday in absence of the boycotting members.

“We are waiting for an answer from the KDP and other sides so we could officially call for the next meeting of the [Kirkuk] provincial council,” Hoshyar Hijran, a PUK member of the provincial council, told The New Region.

Hijran added that they will try not to hold any other provincial council meetings without the participation of the boycotting parties.

“But if they insist on a boycott, we are forced to hold meetings in their absence,” he added. 

The New Region has learned that the PUK has decided to visit the KDP, the Turkmen Front, and the three Arab council members who have opted to stay outside the local Kirkuk government.

Kawa Ahmed, a KDP official previously told The New Region that they had not boycotted the local Kirkuk government but rather they “want to learn of the details of the agreement" that was struck between the PUK and other four members of the Kirkuk provincial council, and of the mechanism agreed upon to distribute all the posts over the political parties.

In the December provincial council elections in Kirkuk, the PUK won five seats, the KDP won two seats, the Arab parties gained a total of six seats, two seats went to the Turkmen, and a quota seat for the Babylon Movement.