Kurdistan Parliament Resumes After Two‑Year Halt as KDP Secures Top Posts Amid PUK Boycott
After more than two years of paralysis, the Kurdistan Region’s parliament has reconvened and elected a KDP‑led leadership slate in a session with 52 lawmakers present and a boycott call from the PUK. The move restarts the sixth term on paper but leaves questions over how representative the chamber is.
The Kurdistan Region’s parliament is functioning again after more than two years on ice, but it returns under a cloud of internal dispute.
On 4 November, lawmakers reconvened the chamber after a two‑year suspension and met the legal quorum with 52 members present. They went on to elect a new presidency, allowing the assembly’s sixth term to finally move beyond an unfinished inaugural session.
Vala Fardi of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was elected Speaker. Two other leadership posts went to figures aligned with the KDP from minority quotas: Rami Nouri, from the Christian component, became Deputy Speaker, and Mona Qahwachi, from the Turkmen component, became Parliament Secretary.
The vote followed a warning from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). A day earlier, the PUK urged political parties not to attend what it called an “illegal” parliamentary session, arguing that reactivating the legislature under these terms would damage the region’s political understandings. The KDP pressed ahead with what was described as a surprise move to reopen the chamber despite that call.
With KDP‑aligned figures holding the main posts, the party now has a firmer grip on parliamentary procedure and the flow of legislation. But a parliament that a major Kurdish party brands illegal will find it harder to claim broad backing when it deals with Baghdad or outside partners.
The long deadlock had already weakened formal politics in the Kurdistan Region at a time of pressure from Baghdad and Tehran and ongoing public frustration over governance. The return of the assembly at least restores a venue where disagreements can appear in public records rather than being handled only through closed‑door deals.
Whether this parliament becomes a platform for settling urgent questions or a new arena for contesting legitimacy depends in part on how the PUK responds from here. Signs to track include whether it takes up its seats or escalates the challenge through legal cases or wider political pressure, which laws the new leadership moves to the top of the agenda, and how federal authorities in Baghdad react to decisions coming from a reactivated but internally divided Kurdish legislature.
Sources
- OSINT