Intel: How new presidency will affect power dynamics in Iraqi Kurdistan

Lawmakers in the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament formally reactivated the office of the presidency today in a session presided over by the body’s first female speaker, Vala Farid. The position was frozen when Massoud Barzani stepped aside after the 2017 independence referendum. The plebiscite had been fiercely opposed by Baghdad, as well as by Iran, Turkey and the United States, setting the stage for Iraqi military action and the loss of Kurdish control of Kirkuk and other contested territories. Barzani’s nephew and son-in-law, Nechirvan Barzani, has since held the fort as prime minister. 

Why it matters: On a practical level, the move is critical for the long-delayed formation of a government in the wake of parliamentary elections held in September. The parliament agreed today that it — not the public — will elect the next president. 

Barzani had been directly elected following a prior change via legislation. The main opposition Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and especially Gorran had vehemently opposed the shift, saying it would give Barzani, the presumptive winner, too much power.

It remains unclear whether the president or the prime minister will now hold the reins. Bilal Wahab, a Wagner Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, spoke to Al-Monitor about the vacuum created by the lack of a constitution in Iraqi Kurdistan. “[It] means that after each election, the system has to be customized to properly reflect the power landscape,” Wahab said.