The reform-minded Gorran (Change) movement has defected with its eight seats from the broader 58-seat Kurdish coalition in the Iraqi parliament. This will weaken the Kurdish position only marginally for the moment, but it introduces one more moving part in an already complicated government formation process.
Not clear yet whether Gorran is moving towards Allawi or towards Maliki–the defection was caused by controversy over Kurdistan’s electoral law, not over who should be prime minister in Baghdad. But I’ll bet the Americans are pushing hard for Change to move towards Allawi.
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