KDP will have own candidate for Iraq presidency: Spokesperson

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) will have its own candidate for the Iraqi presidency, a spokesperson for the party said on Wednesday.

Mahmood Mohammed, the spokesperson for the KDP, said in a statement that the Iraq president position should be shared by the people of Kurdistan and not a single party.

According to the spokesperson, officials from the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) had agreed in a recent meeting that the Kurdish parties should agree on one candidate for the Iraqi president role.

“The Kurds should decide on one candidate similar to the united position and program we had in Baghdad,” he stated.

The PUK was supposed to inform the KDP of their candidates before making a final decision, but after the return of Barham Salih to the party, he was nominated for the Iraqi presidency unilaterally, Mohammed explained.

Earlier on Wednesday, the PUK officially announced Salih, the founder and former head of the Coalition for Democracy and Justice, as their nominee for the post of Iraqi president. The nomination followed the PUK Leadership Council’s approval of Salih’s return to the party.

“We, in the KDP, announce that the position of Iraqi president is the merit of the people of Kurdistan and should not be held by one party,” Mohammed said in his statement, adding the KDP would elect its own candidate for the position.

The Iraqi parliament is scheduled to convene on Sept. 25 to elect the country’s new president which is a traditionally Kurdish-held post since 2005.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany