ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - President Masoud Barzani on Monday called for a new mechanism to select Iraq’s president, emphasizing that the post should belong to the Kurdish people as a whole and not be monopolized by a single party.
“All Kurdish parties must be convinced that this post is the share of the Kurds,” President Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said in a statement issued by Barzani Headquarters.
He stressed that for the Iraqi president to genuinely represent the people of Kurdistan, the current selection process must change. “No single party should consider this post its own private property any longer,” he said.
President Barzani outlined several options to ensure broad Kurdish representation, including having the Kurdistan Parliament nominate a candidate, convening all Kurdish parties to reach a consensus, or allowing Kurdish representatives and blocs in the Iraqi Council of Representatives to select a nominee.
He emphasized that the president does not necessarily have to come from either the KDP or the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). “They could be from another party or be an independent,” he said.
“The important thing is that the individual enjoys Kurdish consensus and truly represents the people of Kurdistan in holding the office of President of Iraq,” he added.
Barzani’s remarks come amid ongoing discussions among Kurdish political parties over Iraq’s upcoming political appointments and the broader need for unity in representing Kurdish interests at the federal level.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraq’s informal power-sharing system has allocated the parliamentary speakership to Sunni Arabs, the premiership to Shiite parties, and the presidency to Kurds. However, some Sunni political blocs have recently expressed interest in seeking the presidency in the next cabinet.
Iraq’s parliamentary elections were held on November 11, with final results announced in mid-November and ratified by the Federal Supreme Court in mid-December.
The Iraqi parliament is scheduled to convene on Monday for its first session of the sixth legislative term, amid political disputes over the election of a new speaker. Sunni parties are expected to attend the session without consensus on a single candidate.
Monday’s agenda includes the swearing-in of newly elected lawmakers in both Kurdish and Arabic, followed by the election of the parliamentary presidency, beginning with the speaker.
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