Kurdish parties in Kirkuk agree on unified electoral list

Shafaq News/ Kurdish political parties in Kirkuk, led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), reached a preliminary agreement on Tuesday to form a unified electoral list ahead of Iraq’s upcoming parliamentary elections.

Mohammed Kamal, head of the KDP’s third branch, told Shafaq News Agency that Kurdish parties, including the KDP, PUK, and several Islamic groups, agreed during a meeting at the Kurdistan Islamic Union headquarters to continue talks to shape a common political strategy that boosts Kurdish representation.

Since 2005, Kirkuk has been designated as one of the "disputed areas" under Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which outlines a process beginning with normalization and ending with a referendum to determine its administrative status. However, none of these stages have been completed, leaving Kirkuk in a prolonged legal and administrative vacuum that continues to fuel ethnic tensions and complicate governance between Baghdad and Erbil.

As Iraq moves closer to its November 2025 parliamentary elections, Kirkuk once again finds itself at the center of political attention. Often described as a microcosm of Iraq’s broader identity struggles, the province remains a battleground for power-sharing among its three main ethnic groups—Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen—as well as smaller minority communities.