Kurdistan Social Democratic Party

The Kurdistan Social Democratic Party (Kurdish: حزبی سۆسیال دیموکراتی کوردستان, romanized: Hizbî Sosyal Dîmukratî Kurdistan, abbreviated as KSDP) is a political party in the Kurdistan Region. It was founded as Kurdistan Socialist Party - Iraq (Kurdish: حزبی سۆسیالیست کوردستان - عێراق, romanized: Hizbî Sosyalîst Kurdistan - Êraq, KSP-I). The first leader was Saleh Yousefi after 1981.

From 1979 to 1985, the KSDP was part of the short-lived alliance Kurdistan United Socialist Party (HSYK), which had included the Socialist Movement of Kurdistan and the two splinters of the South Kurdistan Movement; the HSYK birthed the Kurdistan Toilers' Party. The KSDP component of the alliance was split into two camps: the scientific socialist faction around Resul Mamend, and the social democratic faction around Saleh Yousefi and Mahmoud Othman. Prior to the 1992 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election, the KSDP created an electoral alliance with the Kurdish Socialist Party (PASOK). In August, the Kurdistan Popular Democratic Party joined the alliance, and the three founded the Kurdistan Unity Party (KUP). A faction led by Resul Mamend refused to join the alliance and instead joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in December 1992, where Mamend was included as a member of the Political Bureau. The KUP joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party in August 1993.

A month later, a faction under Mohammed Haji Mahmoud broke away from the KDP again, re-establishing the KSP-I. The following year, it was renamed to Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party (Kurdish: حزبی سۆسیالیست دیموکراتی کوردستان, romanized: Hizbî Sosyalîst Dîmukratî Kurdistan; Arabic: الحزب الاشتراكي الديمقراطي الكردستاني, romanized: Hizb al-Ishtiraki al-Dimuqrati al-Kurdistani). It had been known under this name until a recent name change, although the acronym KSDP stayed the same.

After 1992, the party was led by Mahmoud Othman. The KSDP is currently led by Mohammed Haji Mahmoud.

In the 2013 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election, the KSDP received 12,501 votes (0.6%) and won one seat in the Kurdistan National Assembly. For the 2024 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election, the party joined an electoral alliance together with the Kurdistan Communist Party – Iraq and the Kurdistan Toilers' Party in an alliance called the Kurdistan Region Coalition.