Kurdistan Future Party justifies delay in declaring new oppositional role
Though the timing for declaring the party as part of the opposition coincided with Thursday's vote for the Kurdistan Regional Government's new cabinet, the party had decided to do so for quite some time said Aziz.
He added that an "internal issue" delayed the announcement.
"With the beginning of a new phase for Kurdistan amid the announcement of the new cabinet we felt we should announce the decision," he said.
On Thursday Kurdistan MPs voted for the Kurdistan Region's seventh cabinet, led by Nechirvan Barzani. The Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, two allies in power, had the lion's share of the posts.
The opposition parties announced previously that they would boycott the vote because they deem that the power handover after almost two years is only to satisfy a power-share deal between the two ruling parties and is "not driven by public demand".
MPs from the Gorran (Change) Movement, the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the Kurdistan Islamic Group, as well as the Kurdistan Future Party, did not attend the voting session. It was the first occasion for the Future Party to play its role in the opposition.
Aziz was the secretary of the Kurdistan Toilers' Party but after the politburo of the party separated and both sides took the issue to court, the court decided that the politburo should retain the name of the party.
Aziz then changed the designation of his party to the Kurdistan Future Party, which now holds one seat in parliament and raises the opposition's share in the 111-member parliament to 36 seats.
AKnews
