Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region faces the possibility of rival administrations after a dispute over forming a government deepened divisions between its two dominant parties, Al Jazeera reported Sunday.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) convened the regional parliament in Erbil on Wednesday without the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). PUK leader Bafel Talabani responded by withdrawing his party from the government, according to the report.

A senior PUK official, Mahmood Khoshnaw, warned that the party could establish a competing administration in its Sulaimaniyah stronghold if the KDP proceeds with appointing a prime minister.

“If a prime minister is appointed in Erbil, we will take the same step in Sulaimaniyah,” Khoshnaw told Al Jazeera.

No rival administration has been announced in the supplied reporting. The warnings nevertheless raise the prospect of a return to divided governance between parties that have traditionally shared power in the Kurdistan Regional Government.

The deadlock follows the region’s October 2024 parliamentary election, in which the KDP won 39 seats and the PUK took 23. The New Generation Movement won 15. The KDP’s efforts to form a government remained dependent on an agreement with other parties, Al Jazeera reported.

Independent Kurdish politician Yasin Aziz told the outlet that convening parliament without the PUK had intensified the split. He said both parties would need to make concessions, but he did not expect an agreement soon.

KDP member Subhi Mandalawi blamed the PUK for delaying government formation. He said the door remained open for it and other parties to participate, and rejected a division of the region as unrealistic. Mandalawi also pointed to a parliamentary session held without the PUK in 2018, after which the party joined the government and legislature.

The parties operated separate administrations in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah during their conflict in the 1990s. Al Jazeera reported no recent violent flare-ups between them, although political distrust remains deep.

Constitutional affairs expert Ramadan Albadran told the outlet that Iraq’s constitution provides no mechanism for dividing the Kurdish region into party-controlled zones. He described the dispute as a political crisis with potential security repercussions, rather than a constitutional disagreement over convening parliament.

Sources