The three opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region's parliament have refused to attend today's session to vote for the ministerial candidates for the region's seventh cabinet.
Head of the Gorran (Change) Movement Kardo Mohammed said that his party, along with the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the Kurdistan Islamic Group, have all agreed to boycott today's session.

He added that the opposition parties want the ruling parties to "admit the fact that they have failed to implement their promises" on a number of issues.

Such issues include the rule of law, countering corruption, making the income and expanding budget transparency, resolving the lack of services, forming a national army, uniting the Peshmarga (Kurdish border guards) and Asayish (Kurdish security forces), terminating the rule of two parties in Kurdistan, and preventing the intervention of parties in government affair.

Mohammed said the Kurdistan public expected the opposition reform package, which contained the demands of the people, to be taken seriously.

"But as usual the two ruling parties, disregarding this reality, continued the process of distributing posts and privileges between themselves and continued to exploit parliament to legalize their deeds."

The Gorran chief said that as a result of all these things "we as opposition decided not to attend today's session which is exclusive to entrusting the PM, his deputy, and members of the new cabinet... because we believe this power-swap is to implement the strategic deal between the ruling allies not a power-handover according to civil and modern criteria."

He noted that boycotting means acknowledging no confidence in the new cabinet "because we believe that the cabinet will not be of the level to catch up with the demands of the citizens and basic reform..."

Mohammed said that some ministerial candidates have been re-selected for a position in the cabinet despite the opposition groups being privy to their past misdeeds.

"They don't deserve a vote of confidence. Rather they deserve to be investigated for their deeds," Mohammed added, without naming any candidates.

Today is the deadline for forming the new cabinet. After more than two years of rule, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Prime Minister Barham Saleh will hand over the post to former PM Nechirvan Barzani as per a power-share deal the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party signed in 2007.

Though the parties fought fiercely against each other in the mid 1990s, they became allies after 2007. They now hold 59 seats in the 111-member parliament, while the opposition holds 35 seats.






AKnews