Iraqi Kurdistan: Government formed – but PUK mulls withdrawal

For months, Iraq’s Kurdish political parties have been trying, and failing, to form a regional government, following a parliamentary election in September. Tensions between the three main political parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Gorran (Change) – remain, but it seems that at last a new, broad-based coalition Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is in the process of being formed. On 14 April, Erbil-based Rudaw news site reported that tentative ministerial posts had been assigned. The KDP was said to be getting the interior, natural resources, education, municipalities and tourism, and planning ministries, while Gorran – which came second in the September poll – was to take the ministries of Peshmerga affairs, endowment and religious affairs, finance, and trade.