All eyes on Kurdistan Region parliament as KDP seeks quorum for sitting

ERBIL — The Kurdistan Region’s parliament is due to meet Wednesday to try to elect its leadership, more than two years after its election, but boycotts by several parties could leave it short of a quorum.

An invitation issued Tuesday in the name of the presidency of the parliament’s Diwan, its administrative office, called all members to an 11 a.m. sitting. The sitting would finish the business of the parliament’s first session on Dec. 2, 2024, which was left open without electing a speaker, deputy speaker or secretary.

Later on Tuesday, Diwan head Ardalan Mohammed said in a statement that his office had not issued the call, which had been posted on the parliament’s website. He said only 43 lawmakers had formally signed a request for the sitting. A sitting needs 50% plus one of the 100 members, or 51, and Mohammed said the chamber would be open as soon as that number was reached.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party, the largest bloc with 39 seats, has pushed for the session. Vala Fareed, head of the KDP bloc, urged all lawmakers at a news conference Tuesday to attend. She said parliament had been unable to carry out its legal duties for more than two years.

It was still unclear Wednesday morning how many parties would attend. Some lawmakers have said their parties will stay away, and going by the parties’ stated positions, the sitting is unlikely to reach a quorum unless something unexpected happens.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the KDP’s main rival with 23 seats, has said it will not take part, and the opposition National Stance Movement has said its lawmakers will not attend. Komal, the Kurdistan Justice Group, has boycotted the term since the election over fraud allegations.

Apart from the Dec. 2, 2024, swearing-in, the parliament has not held a sitting since the Oct. 20, 2024, election, one of the longest stoppages in its history. A second attempt to elect a speaker, on Jan. 22, 2025, drew only 26 of the 100 members. The last long stoppage ran for nearly two years, from October 2015 to September 2017, during a dispute over the Region’s presidency.

In the 2024 election, the KDP won 39 seats, the PUK 23, New Generation 15 and the Kurdistan Islamic Union seven. The National Stance Movement won four, Komal three and the People’s Front two. Gorran and the Kurdistan Region Alliance won one seat each, and five seats are reserved for minorities.

The deadlock has also held up a new cabinet. The current KRG cabinet, led by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and sworn in on July 10, 2019, remains in office, and KDP-PUK talks on a new one have repeatedly failed over power-sharing and senior posts.

Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Oct. 26 threw out a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the parliament. It set Dec. 14 to hear a separate case that asks it to declare the Kurdistan Regional Government a caretaker government.