Shafaq News- Erbil

Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani confirmed on Tuesday that Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have not reached an agreement on a candidate for the presidency, as parliament remains unable to move forward with the constitutional vote.

Speaking at a press conference in Erbil, Barzani stressed that “the presidency should not be monopolized by a single party,” arguing that a nominee should be selected through consensus within the Kurdish Parliament and supported by all political forces in the Kurdistan Region.

Meanwhile, Raad al-Dahlaki, a lawmaker from the Al-Azm Alliance, rejected the notion that Kurdish disagreements are the main reason behind the stalled presidential vote. He told Shafaq News that wider political rivalries among parliamentary blocs are driving the delay.

Al-Dahlaki noted that, except for the first parliamentary term after 2003 —when Jalal Talabani was elected— previous legislatures typically saw multiple candidates competing for the presidency. He warned that “persistent political disputes are weakening parliament’s legislative and oversight role,” urging lawmakers to pressure the chamber’s leadership to place the presidential election on the agenda of every session to force accountability.

He added that disagreements between the Shiite Coordination Framework —the largest bloc in parliament— and other political forces over the nomination of a prime ministerial candidate, who can only be constitutionally designated after the election of the president, have deepened the political deadlock and amounted to a constitutional breach.

The impasse follows two failed presidential voting sessions on January 27 and February 1. Although the Council of Representatives is scheduled to convene again on Wednesday, the announced agenda does not include the election of a president. Under Iraq’s post-2003 power-sharing system, the presidency is allocated to a Kurd, the prime ministership to a Shiite Arab, and the speakership to a Sunni Arab.

Read more: Iraq’s Presidential Race: Kurdish candidates competing for the post

At the core of the stalemate is a long-running dispute between the KDP and the PUK. The PUK, which has traditionally held the post, argues that the presidency is part of an established political understanding, while the KDP maintains that the post belongs to the Kurds collectively rather than to a single party, pointing to its strong performance in the latest parliamentary elections as evidence of its mandate.

Read more: Iraq slips into constitutional vacuum as presidential deadlock drags on