The United States has called on Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region to rapidly form a viable government after the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) appeared to clinch parliamentary polls held on Oct. 20.
One day earlier, northern Iraq’s energy-rich Kurdish region held parliamentary polls that pitted the KDP against its longstanding rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
According to preliminary poll results, the KDP, which is controlled by the region’s influential Barzani family, secured the highest number of votes.
The PUK, controlled by the rival Talabani clan, came in second, while the New Generation Movement—a recently founded liberal party—came in a distant third.
Initially slated for 2022, elections for the 100-seat Kurdish Parliament were repeatedly postponed because of chronic disputes between the two dominant parties.
Nechirvan Barzani, the current head of the Erbil-based regional government, said, “[The polls] represent significant advancements in securing the democratic journey of the people of Kurdistan.”
In an Oct. 21 statement carried by the region’s Rudaw news agency, Barzani, who also serves as the KDP’s vice president, hailed the elections as “peaceful and orderly.”
He said the region’s people “eagerly anticipate” the formation of a viable government once the results are officially ratified, after which parliamentarians will select a president, prime minister, and assembly speaker.
Patel commended the “fairly orderly” electoral process and high voter turnout, saying the poll was conducted “without major security incidents.”
“We saw some reporting of some logistical challenges at various polling stations, but overall ... the process went forward fairly orderly,” he said.
Patel also praised the role played by “civil society” in “fostering political dialogue and amplifying the voices of Iraqi Kurdistan Region residents ahead of the election.”
The region’s last parliamentary poll in 2018 had a similar outcome, cementing the KDP’s dominant role and relegating the PUK to relatively minor government posts.
Since then, the rival parties have coexisted in a tense coalition beset by disputes over sharing power and the region’s considerable energy resources.
However, according to the latest poll’s initial results, the KDP failed to win an outright majority, meaning that it would likely have to find common ground with the PUK again.
When asked if the United States would engage with Kurdish parties to assist in reaching a compromise, Patel said: “I’m certainly not going to preview any specific engagement.
“There is more that unites Iraqi Kurdistan leaders than divides them. It’s in the interest of the people to ... form a government as soon as possible.”
Complicating the situation, there is currently an economic crisis caused by the recent suspension of a large part of the region’s lucrative oil exports.
Last year, neighboring Turkey halted oil outflows after the International Chamber of Commerce ordered it to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in damages for unauthorized oil imports from the Kurdish region.
Since then, talks to resume oil outflows have faltered amid ongoing disputes between Baghdad, the Kurdish regional government, and foreign energy companies.
The suspension of oil exports—and revenues accruing from them—has aggravated the region’s economic woes, causing salary delays for government employees and adversely affecting public services.
Based in the city of Erbil, the Kurdish regional government was established in 1992, a year after the United States defeated Saddam Hussein’s Iraq following the latter’s ill-fated invasion of neighboring Kuwait.
For more than three decades, the Kurdish region has enjoyed relative autonomy from Iraq’s central government.
Erbil’s relations with Baghdad deteriorated in 2017, when the Kurdish region held a referendum on independence, the results of which Baghdad declined to recognize.
This was followed by a brief military conflict in which Iraqi government forces seized some 20 percent of the region’s territory, including the oil-rich Kirkuk Province.
