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Under
the agreement announced on 29 May, Barzani will also
serve as commander of the peshmerga, while an
undetermined PUK politburo member will serve as
deputy commander. PUK Deputy Prime Minister Adnan
Mufti will be nominated by both parties to head the
parliament; Nechirvan Barzani, currently head of the
KDP-led Kurdistan Regional Government, will serve as
the Kurdish prime minister; and the current PUK
Prime Minister Umar Fattah will serve as deputy
prime minister of the unified administration.
The agreement is indicative of the Kurdish parties'
style of governance, in which democracy is practiced
through a top-down approach. The KDP and PUK hatched
a deal weeks before the 30 January parliamentary
elections over the number of seats their parties,
along with a handful of smaller parties on their
coalition list, would get following the election.
Agreement Followed Four Months Of Talks
The long-awaited agreement was apparently reached
after PUK head and Iraqi transitional President
Jalal Talabani returned to Al-Sulaymaniyah last
week.
Abd al-Salam Barwari, head of the Democracy and
Human Rights Research Center in Irbil, told RFE/RL
in a 27 May interview that Barzani had sent a letter
to the PUK a day earlier demanding that the issues
between the two sides be settled and the parliament
convened -- with or without Barzani assuming the
previously agreed upon position as president of the
Kurdistan region. Media reports had indicated that
the PUK was hesitant to meet a KDP demand that
Barzani assume the presidency for a four-year term.
Asked about the alleged disagreement, Barwari said:
"It is not a matter of Barzani or not Barzani, it's
a matter of that post. Who knows after two or three
elections who will take the post.... Barzani wanted
to send the message 'Don't make me or my person or
that position as a problem. Forget it, we will begin
without a president.' The message, as I understood
myself, is to put the ball in [the PUK's] field....
Many say that it was a good move, a clever move by
Barzani and that the PUK -- Talabani and his party
-- will be forced to come and agree about all points
including the president of the region."
The PUK apparently met the demand and an agreement
was announced on 29 May. PUK Deputy Prime Minister
Mufti confirmed the agreement in a 31 May interview
and said the parliament will convene on 4 June, more
than four months after the Kurdistan elections.
Mufti said that once in session, the parliament will
examine the proposed presidency law agreed upon by
the leadership of both parties following which
Barzani will be formally elected by parliament as
president. The "election" is a mere formality,
however, as there is no challenger to Barzani.
Executive Agreement
Both Barwari and Mufti dismissed complaints that
their parties were stifling the legislative process
by working out an agreement in lieu of sending it to
the parliament. Both contended that the parties felt
it was better to negotiate the agreement rather than
risk the possibility that the parliament would fall
into a logjam over the issue. "In every
representative or democratic system, there must be a
highest level where some issues [are] decided. And
by practice as the government begins to work, maybe
there will be a need for such authority and maybe
that will be another way that the parliament begins
to discuss that issue," Barwari said.
Mufti also claimed that it was the responsibility of
the parties to work out an agreement first. "We must
go to the parliament after [concluding] an agreement
between the two parties. If you look to the members
of parliament, the majority are members of parties.
So, without reaching that agreement, [it] was
difficult to bring to the parliament all [those]
problems without understanding and without reaching
that agreement.... We can have a decision for the
law maybe in one day but if we [didn't have] this
agreement it would be difficult to discuss it inside
the parliament because this is the responsibility of
the leaderships, Mr. Barzani and Mr. Talabani. So,
now it's better to have a meeting of the parliament
with this agreement [already concluded]. It will be
easier for the members of parliament of course."
Mufti told RFE/RL that the unified administration
would also include members of minority parties
representing Kurdish Islamist groups, and Assyrian
and Turkoman parties. While no timeframe has been
agreed on, Mufti suggested that ministries from both
sides would begin merging as early as two to three
months from now. "Some ministries need time to
unify, like the Interior, like peshmerga, like
Finance, but I don't think it will be a big problem
because we have a plan on how to continue and how to
reach a unification of ministries," he said. Asked
if an agreement had been reached on who would be
responsible for finances in the new administration,
he said: "Not yet. We are going to reach an
agreement in three or four days, before the meeting
of parliament."
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