KDP boycotts Iraq parliament indefinitely over presidential vote

KDP Boycott Is an Empty Gesture With No Value, Analyst Says

BAGHDAD/ERBIL,— Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party parliamentary bloc announced Saturday a full boycott of future sessions of the Council of Representatives, saying the legislature violated the constitution during the presidential election held days earlier.

The bloc, acting on orders from KDP leadership, said in a statement it would stay out of parliament “until further notice,” citing what it described as legal and constitutional breaches during the vote.

Nizar Amedi, the candidate backed by the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was elected as new Iraqi president Sunday. He won 227 votes in a second-round ballot, clearing the simple majority threshold needed in the 329-seat chamber.

The KDP had opposed Amedi’s candidacy. The party had pushed for its own candidate, Fuad Hussein, to hold the post of president of Iraq.

After Amedi’s election, the KDP said it refuses to recognize him as a legitimate representative of the Kurdish people and would not engage with him in that capacity.

Iraq conducted parliamentary elections in early November. Parliament then chose its speaker and two deputies in late December before moving to the presidential vote.

The KDP currently controls two of Iraqi Kurdistan’s top posts. Massoud Barzani leads the party. His son serves as prime minister of the Kurdistan Region, and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani is the region’s president.

The KDP had pushed to also claim the federal presidency, a position that has by custom gone to the PUK for years.

The dispute between the two Kurdish parties had held up the formation of a new federal government. Neither side agreed on a shared nominee, leaving negotiations deadlocked.

Iraq’s political system relies on an informal sectarian arrangement. Kurds hold the presidency, Sunni Arabs the parliament speakership, and Shiite parties the prime ministership.

Following the presidential swearing-in, the new president has 15 days to assign the task of forming a government to the nominee of the largest bloc in parliament.

Political analyst Henase Karim told iKurd News that the KDP boycott is an empty gesture that holds no real political value and does nothing to pressure the parties involved in the process. The move, she said, changes nothing on the ground.

(With files from Rudaw)