Kurdish government faces test of unity

ERBIL, Iraq, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The president of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq is moving to form a new ruling coalition as splits emerge among members of the opposition.

Kurdish President Massoud Barzani called on Prime Minister-elect Barham Saleh to form a new government on the heels of July parliamentary elections in the Kurdish provinces.

Saleh said the efforts to form a new government should focus on experience more than political allegiances, but stressed the new Parliament was open to all political parties.

The rival Change List and the Kurdistan Islamic Union, however, said they may not join a new government, instead favoring a legitimate opposition to the storied incumbent parties in Iraqi Kurdistan -- the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The KIU move, meanwhile, has brought divisions with its political allies in the Service and Reform List, endangering the durability of a united opposition, reports the Iraqi analytical Web site Niqash.

KIU allies say they would approach the incumbents on joining the new government while a decline in the number of ministerial portfolios creates further political strains in the KRG.

Political analysts, Niqash notes, say regardless of the political wrangling, the KRG must move quickly in order to preserve public support and expand public services.