A Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official has indicated that several members of the Kurdish Brotherhood List in the Kirkuk provincial council are against the nomination of Tayib Jabbar, who was declared as the joint candidate of the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) for the position of Kirkuk governor.
Fahmi Fayaq, a senior official of KDP’s branch in Kirkuk speaking to KirkukNow stressed that the issue should be tackled in line with the ongoing efforts to normalize the situation in the multi-ethnic province.
“The PUK and the KDP take the views of these members into consideration and await their final position prior to holding a council meeting,” he said
On July 11, 2019, both parties decided to nominate Tayib Jabbar as the Brotherhood List’s candidate for the position of governor, and formed a joint committee to start talks with the Arab and Turkmen factions in the provincial council regarding the issue; however it is unclear when or where the council would convene to elect new governor.
There are plans to reshuffle the PUK-KDP joint committee
“As the KDP, we have no objection whether the meeting would be held in Baghdad or Erbil or Sulaimaniya, but for this meeting to be fruitful first of all we must convince the Arab and Turkmens” said Fayaq.
In regard to the slow progress achieved by the PUK-KDP joint committee, he said, “There are some reservations about the performance of the committee. Some argue that the committee includes members who are not originally from Kirkuk; therefore there plans to reshuffle it.”
KDP members of the provincial council have boycotted the council meetings since October 16, 2017 after Iraqi federal forces retook control of territories disputed between the federal government and the Kurdistan regional government, including Kirkuk.
“Our return depends on the outcomes of the talks; therefore there is no specific timeframe for the matter” he added.
