Kirkuk Council Elects Turkmen Front’s Qahtan Wandawi As Governor
The vote, with 14 of 15 members in favor, ends a month-long vacancy; an Arab Councilor says the post goes to the Arab component on January 1, 2027
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kirkuk Provincial Council on Saturday elected Qahtan Wandawi, the Turkmen Front’s candidate, as the province’s new governor, and he will remain in the post until the end of the year, according to Kurdistan 24’s correspondent in Kirkuk, Soran Kamaran.
out Of 15 council members attending, 14 voted yes for Wandawi and one ballot was invalid.
Hassan Majeed, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc in the council, told Kurdistan 24 that the vote was held in a democratic and trouble-free process because all the political parties had agreed beforehand on electing Wandawi. “Now, after 30 days of an administrative and security vacuum, Kirkuk has a governor,” he said. “As the KDP, our decisions have always been based on the interests of the people of Kirkuk and Kurdistan, so we saw it as necessary to vote for the new governor.” Majeed said the KDP will closely monitor the work of Kirkuk’s local government, especially in order to restore balance to the city.
Sheikh Zahir Assi, a member of the Arab bloc in the council, told Kurdistan 24 that there is an agreement, with guarantees given, that from January 1, 2027, the post of governor will go to the Arab component, meaning the new Turkmen governor will take office and then step down at the end of the year.
The 16-seat council has seven Kurdish seats, five for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and two for the KDP, six Arab seats, two for the Turkmen Front and one Christian seat, based on the December 18, 2023 election. Under the power-sharing agreement of 2024, the governorship rotates.
Rebwar Taha held it for 20 months from August 2024 to April 2026, then it went to the Turkmen component and Mohammed Samaan was elected governor.
Samaan was sworn in as Iraq’s minister of state for communities’ affairs on October 15, which left the post vacant, and Taha ran the province’s affairs as acting governor.
A session set for Wednesday to elect a successor was postponed because of political disagreements, including a dispute over whether the post should go to a Sunni or Shia candidate. Wandawi becomes Kirkuk’s third governor in 2026, after Taha and Samaan, and his appointment still requires the legal procedures after the council’s vote.