Iraqi Parliament to Hold Presidential Election Session Tuesday
KDP lawmaker Shakhawan Abdullah told Kurdistan24 that if the vote cannot take place on that date, it will be postponed to Wednesday, Jan. 28.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — The Iraqi Parliament is scheduled to hold a session on Tuesday to elect the country’s next president, following a preliminary agreement between political factions regarding the session's date, Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) lawmaker Shakhawan Abdullah told Kurdistan24 on Sunday.
According to Abdullah, discussions were held among the heads of all parliamentary blocs, and the session is planned for Tuesday, (Jan. 27). If the vote cannot take place on that date, it will be postponed to Wednesday, (Jan. 28).
He emphasized that the timing of the parliamentary session must be decided by the parliament's presidency, which consists of the speaker and his two deputies.
The presidency is traditionally reserved for a Kurdish politician, and Kurdish parties—including the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—as well as the Islamic Union, have unified behind their candidates for the position.
Earlier on Friday, the parliamentary presidency released the final list of candidates for the presidential post. The original list included 19 candidates, but Nwezad Hadi, one of the two candidates from the KDP, withdrew, leaving 18 candidates in the running.
The remaining 18 candidates are:
- Dr. Abdullah Mohammed Ali Aliwai
- Fouad Mohammed Hussein
- Nizar Mohammed Said Mohammed
- Shwan Hawiz Fariq Nameq
- Ahmed Abdullah Tofiq Ahmed
- Hussein Taha Hasan Mohammed Sinjari
- Najmaddin Abdulkarim Hama Karim Nasrulla
- Asou Faridoun Ali
- Saman Ali Ismail Shali
- Sabah Salih Said
- Iqbal Abdullah Amin Halawi
- Sardar Abdullah Mahmood
- Mousanna Amin Nader
- Khalid Sadiq Aziz Mohammed
- Azad Majid Hasan
- Rafea Abdullah Hamid Mousa
- Salem Hawas Ali Saadi
- Latif Mohammed Jamal Rashid
Candidate nominations had been open until Jan. 5, 2026, with nearly 81 individuals submitting their names for consideration.
Steps for the Presidential Election:
- Special Parliamentary Session: Parliament organizes a special session for the presidential election (Currently scheduled for Tuesday). For the session to be legally valid, a two-thirds quorum must be present.
- First Round of Voting: In the first round, a candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes of attending MPs to be elected, as stipulated by Article 70 of the Iraqi Constitution.
- Second Round (if necessary): If no candidate achieves the required votes in the first round, the election moves to a second round, in which only the top two candidates from the first round compete. The candidate who receives the (51%) majority of votes in this round is elected president.
- Swearing-In: After receiving a majority of votes, the elected candidate is officially declared the new president of Iraq and will take the constitutional oath before assuming office.
The upcoming session is widely viewed as a key step in Iraq’s political calendar, reflecting both the delicate balance of internal negotiations and the customary allocation of the presidency to a Kurdish politician.