Talabani, Barzani meet to approve candidates

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: A meeting started on Wednesday between the Secretary General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), President Jalal Talabani, and the Leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Massoud Barzani, to approve the names of the candidates of the Kurdish list in the parliamentary elections, a source from the PUK said. “The two presidents met on Wednesday (May 20) in the Salah el-Din resort in north of Arbil to approve the final names of the Kurdish list which gathers their parties in the Kurdish parliamentary elections, scheduled to be held next July 25,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The meeting tackles also the latest political developments in Iraq,” he added. The PUK and the KDP have a strategic alliance to form the biggest bloc of the Kurdistan Alliance in the Iraqi parliament, which has 53 seats out of the 275-seat parliament, in addition to forming the biggest bloc in the 111-seat Kurdish parliament. SH (P) 1