Kurdish parties hold separate talks on Iraq’s presidential nomination

Shafaq News– Erbil/ Al-Sulaymaniyah/ Baghdad (Updated at 16:44)

Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties are moving toward decisive talks on the presidency, with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) scheduled to hold separate leadership meetings on January 3 to shape their nominations, a source told Shafaq News on Friday.

Focus has shifted to the Kurdish share of the presidency following the election of a new parliamentary speaker. While the position has historically gone to the PUK, the KDP has challenged that convention in the past two election cycles, citing its electoral weight by earning more than one million votes as grounds to field its own candidate.

The source said that the PUK will meet in Al-Sulaymaniyah under the leadership of Bafel Talabani to review two potential nominees, Nizar Amedi and Khalid Shwani, before naming an official candidate.

In Erbil, the source added, the KDP leadership will convene under party chief Masoud Barzani, with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, who also serves as the KDP deputy leader, and Prime Minister Masrour Barzani expected to attend. The party is weighing the candidacies of Rebar Ahmed, the Kurdistan Region’s interior minister, and Fuad Hussein, Iraq’s foreign minister.

The discussions follow leader Barzani’s late-2025 call for a revised selection process based on broader Kurdish consensus rather than competition limited to the two dominant parties.

The source said the separate meetings could lead to a joint KDP–PUK session aimed at agreeing on a single Kurdish nominee, a step seen as key to avoiding political deadlock.

Under constitutional procedures, the presidential election is expected within 30 days of parliament’s first session, after the speaker and two deputies are chosen. The elected president then tasks the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government, a process that often extends for months.

Since 2003, Iraq’s political system has operated under an informal power-sharing arrangement assigning the premiership to Shiites, the presidency to Kurds, and the speakership to Sunnis.

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