Shafaq News- Kirkuk

Asaib Ahl al-Haq Secretary-General Qais al-Khazali said Friday that the political agreement he personally brokered in late 2024 includes a rotation clause under which the Kirkuk governorship will pass to the Arab component after the current Turkmen term, completing a sequence that began with a Kurdish governor.

Earlier, the Kirkuk Provincial Council elected Mohammed Samaan, head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, as the province's new governor, replacing Rebwar Taha of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Al-Khazali considered the step “strengthens the participation of all of Kirkuk's communities in administering the province.”

No Turkmen figure had governed Kirkuk since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Under the rotation framework, the governorship is to transfer to a Sunni Arab candidate following the Turkmen term, remaining in Arab hands until the next provincial council elections. Outgoing governor Taha is set to assume the post of first deputy governor under the same arrangement.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which holds two seats on the council, boycotted Thursday's session, rejecting the vote outright. The party said it would only recognize decisions reached with the full participation of all political parties and community representatives —the same position it held when it boycotted the original August 2024 formation session.

Read more: Kirkuk installs its first Turkmen Governor in two decades, but not everyone accepts it