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."