Iraq
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani speaking to reporters on February 1, 2025. Photo: Screengrab / Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Sunday that the Region’s two biggest parties have yet to reach an agreement on a joint candidate for Iraq’s presidency. The federal parliament has indefinitely postponed a scheduled session to elect a new president for the country.
The parliamentary session scheduled for Sunday to elect a new president was postponed, state media reported. No new date has been specified for the meeting.
Prime Minister Barzani, who is also a deputy leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said talks with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were ongoing. “No agreement has been made yet.”
On Friday, 52 lawmakers submitted a formal request to parliament’s presidency, urging the KDP and PUK to resolve their differences and agree on a single candidate ahead of the session.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said last week that the KDP was prepared to hand over its federal posts to the PUK in exchange for the presidency, should the two sides agree on a candidate.
A total of 19 candidates, Kurdish and Arab, are competing for the position, though the eventual winner is widely expected to come from the KDP, the PUK, or be a consensus nominee backed by both parties.
The position has been mostly held by the PUK since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Under Iraq’s constitution, the president must be elected within 30 days of the first parliamentary session. Once sworn in, the president has 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Shiite Coordination Framework is expected to visit Erbil to meet KDP President Masoud Barzani. A senior KDP official said the party was awaiting the outcome of those talks before making a decision, adding that any move would be based on “the supreme interests of our people.”
Following the election results, the Coordination Framework announced it had formed the largest bloc in parliament, positioning it to nominate the next prime minister. The alliance has named former prime minister and State of Law coalition leader Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate.
The Coordination Framework has also held separate meetings with both the KDP and PUK, calling on them to reach an agreement that would allow the president to be elected within constitutional timelines.
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