Shafaq News- Kirkuk

Kirkuk's Provincial Council will meet on Wednesday to elect a new governor, with Turkmen candidate Qahtan Al-Wandawi the frontrunner for the post, a political source told Shafaq News on Tuesday.

The 4:00 p.m. session will consider the resignation of Governor Mohammed Samaan Agha, who also serves as minister of state, before voting on his successor, according to the source. Accepting the resignation would clear the way for the election, in which Al-Wandawi faces fellow Turkmen candidate Mardin Gokkaya.

The vote follows understandings among the council's blocs to keep the governorship in Turkmen hands after a period of wrangling over how the next governor should be chosen.

Samaan Agha became Kirkuk's first Turkmen governor in April under a deal to rotate the post among the province's Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen and Christian communities. After he was appointed minister of state for foreign affairs in October in Ali Al-Zaidi’s cabinet, he pledged to step down if the council selected a Turkmen successor under the agreed timetable.