Independent Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman stressed the difficulty of holding elections for the Kurdistan Regional Parliament without the participation of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Othman said in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA): 'Conducting or canceling the Kurdistan Regional Parliament elections is in the hands of the Kurdish parties only. They are the ones who decide to hold or postpone them, and the federal government or other political parties have nothing to do with it,' indicating: 'The President of Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani, in his recent visit to Baghdad, met with a number of political leaders and they assured him of the possibility of making the postponement decision by him or in agreement with the other Kurdish parties.' Othman explained: 'The Kurdistan Democratic Party controls half the area of the Kurdistan region, and therefore the party's failure to participate in the elections means that half of the region's population will not participate in the elections, thu s creating new problems, so it is better to agree to postpone the elections until all Kurdistan political blocs agree to solve the outstanding problems between them. Source: National Iraqi News Agency