"Our situation [PUK] will be very bad in the next Kurdistan parliamentary election,” Bakhtiar said on Saturday November 27.

He also spoke on corruption, stating there were high officials who have stolen $500 million.

"If they [senior officials] take out the hidden money they could pay for the students’ monthly stripes," Bakhtiar said.

Students in the Kurdistan Region held mass protests for most of the last week against the non-payment of student stipends.

Reporter’s code: 50101