Kurdistan legislature to vote on reactivating presidency post Wednesday
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s parliament is due to hold a session on Wednesday to vote on reinstituting the presidency office, the body announced a day after leading parties reached a final agreement on the formation of the new government.
On the agenda, the legislature said in a statement on Monday, is “voting on ‘Proposed Bill on the Reactivation of the Office of the President of the Kurdistan Region – Iraq and Amending the Method of Electing the President Till the Ratification of a Constitution.’”
The Kurdistan Region held its parliamentary election on Sept. 30, with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) securing 45 seats in the 111-seat legislature. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Change Movement (Gorran) came in second and third place with 21 and 12 seats, respectively.
Signed by 68 lawmakers, the proposed bill was first introduced in early April. Following the first reading, parliament postponed the date for subsequent ones and a vote amid ongoing disputes by runner-up parties over their allotment of posts in the future government.
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However, the deadlock came to an end after the KDP signed a decisive deal with the PUK on Sunday, kickstarting the process to finally form a new government, which the KDP has delegated Masrour Barzani, the current Kurdish security chief, to head.
The Kurdistan Region previously held separate elections to select a president, but parliament seeks to alter this process for the time being in hopes of facilitating the formation of a new regional government. According to the stated plan, this process would continue until parliament is able to ratify its constitution for the Kurdistan Region, which would outline the official procedure for appointments to the post and the powers it would wield.
The regional presidency has been suspended since November 2017, when then-President Masoud Barzani announced he would end his already-extended term in the aftermath of the referendum on independence and as Kurdish parties failed to agree on a date for regional elections.
Since then, the powers of the president have been delegated to the prime minister, parliamentary speaker, and the regional judiciary.
Once a new president is elected, with the KDP nominee being outgoing Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, the leading coalition will be asked to present its candidate for the premiership, who would then go on to form the future regional government.
Editing by Nadia Riva