ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – New cabinet ministers of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will be sworn in at the parliament on Wednesday after nine months of negotiations on power sharing among ruling parties.


Prime Minister-Designate Masrour Barzani, 50, submitted his cabinet nominations on Monday. Parliament and the KRG Integrity Commission have reviewed the nominations and will hold a vote of confidence on the nominations today.


The new cabinet will have three women ministers. The previous KRG had one.

Begard Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) will be Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources. The other two are Gorran's Kwestan Mohammed and the Kurdistan Democratic Party's (KDP) Vala Fared, for the roles of Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and Region Minister, respectively.

Fared is the parliament’s incumbent speaker, but will be replaced by PUK’s Rewaz Fayaq in line with a bilateral agreement on cabinet positions between the two parties.

The Yezidi, Turkmen and Christian minorities will also be represented in the new cabinet. The Yezidis will have the posts of adviser to the parliament speaker, adviser to Prime Minister-Designate Masrour Barzani, undersecretary for an unspecified ministry, and a director-general in the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Shingal Mayor Mahma Khalil told Rudaw on Tuesday.


The Region’s Turkmen and Christian minorities have also been granted a ministry each. Turkmen will run one of the Region Ministries and the Christians will have the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Today, Barzani will present his agenda for the next four years as prime minister. The blueprint has reportedly been prepared jointly with key cabinet partners, the PUK and Gorran.

The new cabinet reportedly aims to diversify Kurdistan Region’s revenues, minimize bureaucratic procedures in the government, conduct economic and administrative reforms, and further strengthen security and stability.

Protection of the rights of minority groups, Peshmerga reforms and development of diplomatic relations with the outside world will also feature importantly in the agenda of the new cabinet.

The Kurdistan Region held parliamentary elections on September 30, 2018, with the ruling KDP winning 45 seats in the 111-seat legislature. The PUK won 21 seats, and the Change Movement (Gorran) 12.

No party won an outright majority to form the government alone, forcing the KDP to negotiate a coalition deal with its nearest rivals, the PUK and Gorran.

To date, the Kurdistan Region was run by a caretaker government for over nine months.

Erbil ushers in a new era of governance with a new cabinet and a new president in place. The KRG will from now on be in a much stronger position to address relations with Baghdad, resolve outstanding issues on oil sales, agree its share of the federal budget, and solve territorial disputes with the federal government.

A new government will also reinvigorate the political and economic atmosphere in the Kurdistan Region as it emerges from a costly war with the Islamic State (ISIS) and a crippling financial crisis following a budget cut by Baghdad in 2014 and subsequent falling prices of oil.

Rudaw