Jafar Ibrahim Eminki, the KDP Spokesperson and Deputy Speaker of Kurdistan parliament, told Mehr News correspondent that Kurdish President Massoud Barzani will release a statement on the future president of the Kurdistan Region in the upcoming days, adding the KDP believes the current situation in Kurdistan demands President Barzani retain the office of president as no one else is as capable as him to manage the current situation.
“Since Iraq’s presidency has been given to Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the presidency of Kurdistan Region must therefore be given to the KDP, and the KDP’s candidate is Massoud Barzani. However, the law indicates President Barzani’s two terms in office have ended,” he said.
As the tenure of Iraqi Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani is coming to an end soon, the question of transfer of power has divided Kurdish political factions and threatens to destabilize the Kurdistan Region of Iraq amid an ongoing war against the ISIL terrorist group.
Barzani has been president for 10 years. When his term was about to end in June 2013, his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and then-ally Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) agreed to extend his term for two years.
The legal provisions introduced in June 2013 to extend Barzani's term explicitly state that the president's tenure will not be prolonged for more than two years. This two-year period will end on August 19.