The Kurdistan Parliament elected its leadership on Wednesday, November 4, ending a legislative paralysis that had lasted since its inaugural session in December 2024. With 52 of the chamber’s 100 members present, one more than the 51 needed for a legal quorum, members elected Vala Fareed of the Kurdistan Democratic Party as speaker, Rami Nouri, a Christian quota representative, as deputy speaker, and Muna Qahwachi, a Turkmen representative, as secretary. The presidency vote for Fareed was reported as unanimous among those present.
The quorum was assembled against an organised boycott. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the New Generation Movement, the Islamic Union and the Stance Front opposed or boycotted the KDP backed effort to convene the chamber, and the attendance figure was reached only after individual lawmakers broke with their parties, including three New Generation members who defied their movement’s boycott and at least two PUK lawmakers who had earlier declared themselves independents. The KDP won 39 seats in the October 2024 election, ahead of the PUK on 23 and New Generation on 15, but no party held a majority, and the failure to elect a presidency left the legislature unable to legislate or oversee the executive, with the ninth Kurdistan Regional Government cabinet serving in a caretaker capacity.
The breakthrough is contested. The PUK has declared the sitting illegitimate and said it will not recognise institutions created through it, and Kurdish political reporting describes a warning from the PUK side that a unilateral reopening could push the region back toward rival administrations. The KDP, for its part, welcomed the reactivation as necessary to protect the region’s constitutional institutions and urged the other factions to join the legislative process.
What changes is procedural, not yet governmental. A functioning presidency lets parliament schedule business, and it changes the arithmetic of forming the next regional government, which for two years proceeded on the assumption that the KDP and PUK ultimately needed each other. Whether the boycotting parties take their seats, challenge the sitting, or hold out for a power sharing agreement decides whether Wednesday’s vote becomes a working legislature or a second contested institution. Status: reported, with the legitimacy of the sitting disputed by the boycotting parties.