Political disunity clouds KRG fiscal and energy outlooks

SULAIMANIYA/ERBIL - With less than a month before Iraq’s national elections, Kurdistan’s two ruling parties remain locked in an eight-month standoff over forming a new regional Cabinet that threatens their ability to govern in Erbil and to wield leverage in Baghdad.

If the KRG could assemble a functioning Cabinet before Iraq’s national elections on Nov. 11, it would send a signal of Kurdish unity and strengthen the KRG’s hand in post-election negotiations, helping to secure critical federal funding for the salaries of civil servants and increase the KRG's ability to preserve its energy sector authority during a volatile period of restarting pipeline exports under a new oil and financial deal with Baghdad.