Change movement refuse KDP’s request to relinquish Kurdistan interior ministry position
KNNCnet – 21.2.2014 – The Movement for Change (Gorran) has officially refused to give up the position of the Interior Ministry and a member of the Gorran Movement’s negotiation team insists on his party’s right and determination to obtain the position.
Azad Barwari, member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) negotiation team visited Gorran’s main headquarters in Sulêmanî and delivered his party’s message concerning the division of the ministerial posts.
“The KDP asked Gorran to relinquish the post of the Interior Ministry and offered the position of Finance Ministry, but Gorran officially refused the notion and expressed the Party’s right to holding the post” a Gorran source told Sharpress.
“We insist on holding the position of the Interior Ministry and that is Gorran’s red line to participate in the formation of the eighth cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG),” Aram Shex Mohammad told Lvinpress. Shex Mohammad added that his Movement does not only want to casually participate in the new cabinet. Gorran wants to actively participate and make fundamental changes in the government institutions. In the last elections in the Kurdistan region, the PUK and the KDP used the security forces to put pressure on the voters and have fired nearly 1000 employees who were employed in government directorates and offices just because they were hypothetically voted for Gorran or sympathized with it.
There is a widespread claim in the Kurdish media, Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which came third in the September 2013 elections, puts pressure on the KDP for the position of the Deputy Prime Minister of the KRG and that PUK’s candidate for the post is Talabani’s son, Qubad. “Gorran neither fights for posts nor is under pressure of someone who has an upper hand in the party. Gorran will only give the posts to highly qualified people and those who deserve it and can serve the people of Kurdistan” Hoshyar Abdula, member of Gorran’s negotiation team told Nalia Radion and Television (NRT) in an interview.