Kirkuk Council Meets Today To Open Governor Candidacy

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kirkuk Provincial Council has called its members to an extraordinary and urgent session at 4 p.m. on Wednesday to open candidacy for the post of governor and to vote on a new one, according to Kurdistan 24’s correspondent in Kirkuk, Soran Kamaran. The session is to be held in the council’s meeting hall, with the opening of candidacy as the main item on the agenda.

According to Kurdistan 24’s information, the Turkmen Front has named Qahtan al-Wandawi as its official candidate for the post, and he is to be voted on at the session.

A council member told Iraqi media that Wandawi, who heads the Front’s Kirkuk branch, is the main candidate, and that Mardin Gokkaya, a member of its political bureau, is also proposed.

Another candidate is Muhaymin Hamdani, a lawmaker from the Sunni-led Taqadum party, according to the same report, and the member said changes were possible until the last moments.

The post fell vacant after Mohammed Samaan Agha, the Turkmen Front leader and governor, was sworn in as a federal minister of state in October when Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi completed his cabinet.

Samaan became Kirkuk’s first Turkmen governor in April, replacing the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) Rebwar Taha, who became deputy governor, under a rotation deal that gave the Turkmen the post and later the Arabs, according to Iraqi media.

Samaan said on October 28 he would resign if the council selected a Turkmen successor under the agreed timetable, and he kept claiming the office while a law bars holding two state posts. The rotation deal calls for the governorship to pass to a Sunni Arab candidate and remain Arab until the next provincial council elections.

The agreement grew out of an August 2024 meeting at Baghdad’s Rasheed Hotel, held without the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which elected Taha as governor and Mohammed Hafiz as council head, according to local media.

The vote may be contested. Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais al-Khazali has objected to giving the post to a Sunni figure, saying an earlier understanding called for a Shia governor in exchange for a ministry for Samaan, according to Iraqi media quoting a source, who said the disagreement could delay the session.

The council has 16 seats, with the PUK-affiliated list holding five, the Arab lists six, the Turkmen Front two, the KDP two and one quota seat for Christians.

The KDP boycotted the April session that elected Samaan and rejected the vote. Under Iraqi law, the council elects the governor and a presidential decree makes it official.