ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan’s lawmakers are set to hold their first session on Tuesday following the elections of the assembly’s leadership last week, with the second largest party looking to boycott the meeting.

Tuesday’s session will reportedly serve “to form the parliament’s Legal Committee,” according to a statement from the head of the legislature.

The Speaker and her two deputies were voted in a week earlier by lawmakers from all factions except those of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), who boycotted the session.

The leading Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) candidates, Vala Fareed and Hemin Hawrami, were elected as Speaker and first deputy speaker respectively during the session. The second deputy post went to a Muna Kahveci, the nominee of the assembly’s Turkmen parties.

Fareed is only interim speaker and would step down once the PUK agrees to rejoin the session and present its nominee for the post. As per the draft agreement between the KDP and PUK, the speakership is meant to go to a candidate, also expected to be female, from the PUK.

However, amid disagreements with the KDP over what the PUK considers a key issue in a potential deal to form a coalition government, the latter boycotted the session during which the votes on the assembly’s leadership posts were held.

Since then, the two parties have been in negotiations to address their points of contention and potentially reach a new agreement.

Editing by Nadia Riva