Southern Kurdistan Parliament has been closed for 23 months and was expected to reopen today, but it was announced that the opening will be on September 15, at 19:00. The plan is to reopen the Parliament before the referendum.

After the meeting of the KDP, the Goran (Change) Movement and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Hewlêr, it was decided to reopen the Parliament.

The Southern Kurdistan Press Office leaked a list to the press yesterday and claimed “the necessary signatures to reopen the parliament have been gathered” and “the parliament is to open on September 14”.

But the Southern Kurdistan Parliament bylaws require a call for meeting notice 48 hours before the members of the parliament can hold a meeting. This is cited as the reason for the delay.

Meanwhile, the Goran Movement called the party council to a meeting to discuss the opening of the parliament and their participation.

HOW WAS THE PARLIAMENT CLOSED?

On October 12, 2015, KDP barred the parliamentary chair Dr. Yusuf Muhammed from the Goran Movement from entering Hewlêr and put a lock on the parliament. The Goran Movement called this a “coup”.

Muhammed returned to Sulaymaniyah and said: “It is Barzani whose term is up, not the parliamentary chair. The capital of Kurdistan has been occupied.” Muhammed stated that the KDP has staged a coup against the parliament so Masud Barzani, whose term as the President of the Kurdistan Region was up, could stay in office. KDP later expelled 5 Goran ministers from the government.

Barzani was elected as the Southern Kurdistan president in 2005 by the parliament and in 2009 by popular vote, and his term was up in 2013. But the parliament extended Barzani’s term for two years.

Barzani’s extension was up on August 20, 2015, but he stayed in office citing ISIS attacks as an excuse.

In the 2013 elections, KDP won 38 seats while the Goran Movement won 24, the PUK 18, Yekgirtû Islami 10 and Komeleyê Islami had won 6 seats. Other seats in the parliament went to minorities due to the quota practices.

After 9 months of negotiations following the 2013 elections in Southern Kurdistan, KDP, PUK, Goran Movemnet, Yekgirtu Islam and Komala Islam formed a wide base coalition government.

But the KDP had been governing Southern Kurdistan alone after they refused to allow the parliamentary chair into Hewlêr and dismissed the Goran ministers on October 12, 2015.