Shafaq News / According to the results of the ballot boxes, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (K.D.P.), led by Masoud Barzani, is moving at a steady pace to map the formation of the new Iraqi government.

The K.D.P., armed with 33 parliamentary seats, chose to make its first steps from al-Sulaymaniyah to discuss ways to unite the winning and losing Kurdish forces before heading to Baghdad, as well as to engage in coalition consultations with other Shiite and Sunni forces to form a new Iraqi government.

After the K.D.P. won its seats in the Kurdistan Region, the result necessitated the responsibility of forming the Iraqi government at the party level of the Region first, "The victory of the K.D.P. with a significant superiority over its rivals, necessitates starting the marathon at the level of the regional parties, to head strongly to Baghdad and negotiate with national competitors of the Shiite and Sunni components," said Fakhreddine Ezzedine, an analyst on Kurdish political affairs.

Speaking to Shafaq News agency, Ezzedine said that the K.D.P's success started in al-Sulaymaniyah, to build bridges of communication with the governorate's parties, including those who won no seats in the elections. 

Three scenarios

For their part, Kurdish observers predicted three scenarios for the participation of Kurdish forces in the negotiations to form the Iraqi government. They said that it depends on the nature of the Kurdish parties' acceptance of the Democratic Party's initiative to unite the Kurdish house at first.

"The Kurdish forces' orientation to Baghdad to form a government in Baghdad is limited to three scenarios, the first of which is that the Kurds go with a unified delegation, and this is what the Democratic Party started working on," Sevin Mohammed, a journalist, and observer of Kurdish political affairs, told Shafaq News agency.

The second scenario, according to Mohammed, is "the formation of a joint delegation between the K.D.P. and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (P.U.K.) because of the long strategic relations between the two parties," while the third scenario represents "each party going with a different delegation to Baghdad."

"The second scenario is likely to happen, given the nature of the relationship between the K.D.P. and the P.U.K., the position of the weak parties, as well as the extent to which Baghdad's parties affect some Kurdish parties. Also, the external factor has an impact on the formation of an internal Kurdish alliance," he added.

On the alliances closest to the Kurdish forces in Baghdad, most Kurdish leaders, led by the K.D.P. leader Masoud Barzani, stressed that the interest of Kurdistan's people is what determines the alliances between his party and any force that wants to ally with it.

Therefore, according to observers, the Kurdish people's interest will be the basis for any alliance with the political forces in Baghdad, which cannot be overlooked in any coalition that will include Kurdish parties.

The Sadrist bloc

"The Democratic Party has a rapprochement with all parties, but the Sadrist bloc led by Muqtada al-Sadr is the closest of all, although there is no formal agreement between the two parties," Said Mahmoud Mohammed, spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, at a press conference.

Mohammed stressed the need for, "discussions with Baghdad to determine the Kurdish share of national positions, and then discuss among the Kurdish parties to determine each party's share," noting at the same time that the federal government should not allow the occupation of the Kurdish people with constitutional benefits which are their rights and must be recognized.