Ali Hussein, a spokesperson for the KDP, explained this further. He says there is simply not enough time to dissolve the government and form a new one before the next elections. “It is unrealistic and illogical especially because the term of the current government will end in just a few months,” he argues.
This is a good point. The formation of a new government now would require several rounds of negotiations on which party takes which ministries and how much power each group gets. Additionally, it’s hard to know who would want to inherit all the problems the current government is facing.
“No one would want such a heavily indebted administration,” Mawati adds.
There are several ways that a government can be dismissed in legal terms, explains local legal analyst and former politician, Ahmed Warti. Half of the ministers resign plus one, parliamentary procedures are suspended by half of the MPs themselves plus one, or the end of the parliamentary session, or the resignation of the prime minister.
So how realistic is it that an interim government is formed in Iraqi Kurdistan? Not very, says Shorish Hassan, a lecturer in political science at the University of Sulaymaniyah. He believes the calls for this are mainly about electioneering. Elections for a new Kurdish government are slated to be held around the middle of next year.
“The PUK and KDP don’t want to be pushed aside which is why they are against dismissing the current government,” Hassan explains. “And the other parties are not really serious about their demands for the dismissal of the current government. If they were they would have withdrawn their ministers completely. All parties share the blame for the failure of the Kurdish parliamentary system,” he argues.
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