ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said Friday it will boycott Saturday’s parliamentary session to elect Iraq’s next president, citing a lack of political consensus.
“We have decided not to participate in tomorrow's session,” the KDP bloc in the Iraqi parliament said in a statement. The presidential election is scheduled to take place during Saturday’s session.
Under Iraq’s informal power-sharing system, the presidency is allocated to the Kurds, the parliamentary speakership to Sunni Arabs, and the premiership to Shiite parties. However, the constitutional deadline to elect a president has already passed, as the two main Kurdish parties, the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have yet to agree on a joint candidate. The PUK has nominated Nizar Amedi, while the KDP has put forward Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
The KDP’s statement added that the “attempt” to convene the session and elect the president “imposes a fait accompli” and “constitutes a blatant disregard for the essence of national partnership and a dangerous retreat from the constitutional understandings upon which the country's political process was built.”
The party added that the presidency and the premiership “are inseparable national matters” and must be “addressed as a single, integrated package within a framework of genuine consensus and comprehensive, serious dialogue.”
Shortly after the KDP’s announcement, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition also said it would not attend the session, backing a postponement and citing “the necessity of preparing a positive atmosphere that ensures responsible outcomes serving the interests of the country,” according to Maliki’s adviser Hisham al-Rikabi.
The KDP holds 26 seats in the parliament, and the State of Law has 29.
Maliki was positioned as the leading candidate for the premiership after being nominated by the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework following the November elections.