Shafaq News- Baghdad

Feyli Kurds will resort to the media and public opinion if they are not fairly represented in Iraq’s next government, an Iraqi lawmaker warned on Thursday, as negotiations continue over cabinet positions.

Speaking with Shafaq News, Haider Abu Tara, an MP representing the Feyli Kurds —a Shiite Kurdish community concentrated in Baghdad and eastern Iraq— said that successive governments since 2003 had failed to fairly represent minority groups in the distribution of ministries, despite repeated promises of political partnership.

Abu Tara revealed that he recently met Prime Minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi, who assured him that the new cabinet would include all political and social components “without marginalization.”

The Feyli Kurdish community is seeking a ministerial portfolio in areas such as Migration and Displacement, Culture, or Education, in addition to executive posts linked to the files of martyrs and prisoners, he added, calling for a government built on “partnership, balance, and genuine consensus.”

Read more: Genocide survivors: Feyli Kurds seek true political representation

Iraq’s Council of Representatives announced that al-Zaidi is expected to submit his cabinet lineup and governing program before the end of this week, ahead of a confidence session scheduled for next week.

Negotiations over ministries are continuing under a “points” system tied to parliamentary representation, in which blocs require at least 10 seats to secure service ministries and more than 15 seats for sovereign portfolios. Cabinet posts in Iraq are traditionally distributed through political agreements under the muhasasa system, a post-2003 power-sharing arrangement among the country’s major political and ethnic groups.

Nine quota seats are currently reserved for minority communities in Iraq’s 329-member parliament. Feyli Kurds, whose population is estimated at between 1.5 and 2 million people, hold only one parliamentary quota seat allocated to a candidate from Wasit province under Iraqi law. Community representatives describe the arrangement as “institutional discrimination,” noting that other minorities, including Christians and Yazidis, hold five or more parliamentary seats.

Read more: Al-Zaidi named prime minister: Easy nomination, harder road ahead