New Kurdish govt. to be 19-portfolio coalition – PUK official

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The new Kurdistan regional government will be a coalition one comprising political parties save the two main parties and would be composed of 19 portfolios, a Kurdish politician said on Thursday. “The new government will include other groups like Turkmen and Christians in addition to a number of parties that won in the recent elections,” Saady Ahmed Pira, a leading member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told Iraqi News. The deputy premier of the former Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG), Burham Saleh, was confirmed to be the new prime minister, while Azad al-Birwari, a leading member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), will be the deputy premier, he said. “Next week will see the endorsement of this assignment by the Kurdistan parliament so that the prime minister-designate would have enough time to meet with the representatives of the winning political parties and hold government lineup negotiations,” said Pira. He expected the curtail in the number of the Kurdistan RegionG ministries to help address the problem of shortage of buildings that fit as ministry headquarters. “The former governments resorted to lease some buildings to use as ministerial headquarters,” he added. AmR (S) 1