Masoud Barzani meets with PUK candidate for Iraqi presidency

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Following a meeting with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) candidate for the Iraqi presidency, the President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) says the Kurdish blocs in Baghdad will finalize a united candidate for the post.

KDP President Masoud Barzani, and Barham Salih, the PUK candidate for the Iraqi presidency, met in Erbil on Friday to discuss the process of electing Iraq’s new president, a statement from Barzani’s office said.

The Iraqi president post is for the people of Kurdistan based on the political merit and is not owned by one person from a single political party, Barzani stated.

“We prefer that the political parties agree on one candidate for the post but the brothers from the PUK elected their candidate unilaterally and then other parties, including the KDP, announced their candidates,” the KDP President continued.

Political parties in Kurdistan should initiate a mechanism to finalize the matter, and the opinion of the people of Kurdistan must be respected, Barzani said in the statement.

“Each candidate with the highest number of votes will be elected as Kurdistan’s candidate for the president post.”

The Kurdish blocs in Baghdad should finalize the matter, and their decision should be respected, the KDP President concluded.

Salih and Fuad Hussein, the former Chief of Staff to the Kurdistan Region President, who the KDP has nominated for Iraqi president, have been in Baghdad for the past few days to gather support from large Iraqi parliamentary blocs for their candidacy.

Although there are currently seven candidates for the presidency, it is likely the competition will come down to the KDP and the PUK candidates.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany