Iraqi Kurdish President set to rule for two more years

[Piling]

(Reuters) - The president of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani is set to stay in office for another two years, after lawmakers voted on Sunday to extend his tenure amid scuffles in parliament and an outcry from opposition parties.

Barzani's presidency had been due to end this summer, when his second term of four years ends, but in recent months members of his party said legal ambiguities might allow him to remain longer or run again.

The region's presidential law places a limit of two four-year terms on the position.

"We are against the extension. We think it is illegal," said Mohammed Tofiq, head of public relations for opposition party Gorran (Change). "It proves to everyone that there is no democracy (in Kurdistan)".

Once the most impoverished and repressed region in Iraq, Kurdistan now exists as a quasi-state within a state and has successfully insulated itself against the sectarian violence that plagues the rest of the country.

Stability and oil have drawn in foreign investment and the region is prospering, but a domestic opposition has built up a considerable following by railing against corruption, lack of transparency and the hegemony of two ruling parties.

Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) governs the northern enclave in partnership with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose leader Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was flown to Germany last December after suffering a stroke.

Between them, the KDP and PUK hold a majority of seats in the assembly, followed by Gorran, which was at the forefront of anti-government protests in 2011 during which at least 10 people died.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held later this year.

(Reporting by Isabel Coles; editing by Andrew Roche)

[Anthea]

The Gorran party should be banned - they behave like unruly 2 year old children - they have no place in governing a country

In order to protect Kurdistan Barzani has no choice other than to remain in office - even if he wanted to retire he has to protect Kurdistan from Gorran idiots - and due to the Gorrans' recent behaviour Barzani has to work even harder now in at attempt to limit the harm that the Gorrans have done to Kurdistan's standing in the international community

[KurdInSweden]

Can't someone make a thread and tell us/me about the different parties? I have zero track of them and their views.

[Aslan]

“The Kurdish parliament approved delaying presidential elections for two years,” said Omar Sadiq, a lawmaker loyal to Barzani’s party, adding, “The election on September 21 will be for parliament and the provincial councils only.”

However, opposition lawmakers criticized the decision to delay the polls.

Bayan Ahmed, an opposition MP, said, “We do not trust them,” referring to the Iraqi region’s dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and its smaller partner the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), adding, “There is no reason for this delay because the date for the elections is already fixed.”

Over the past months, the Kurdistan region’s ruling and opposition lawmakers have been at odds on whether to permit Barzani to stand for another term in power.

The opposition argues that the region's presidential law places a limit of two four-year terms on the position, while the ruling party and its partner have been pressing for a referendum on a new constitution, which would authorize Barzani to serve up to two more terms in office, if approved.

The KDP and the PUK, which are headed by ailing Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, hold a majority of seats in Kurdistan's 111-seat regional parliament.

Kurdistan has been an autonomous part of Iraq since 1991. Baghdad and the Kurdistan region have been at odds over a number of issues, including oil production and lands.

The Kurds are determined to maintain their autonomy and develop their own oil resources. They have signed contracts on their own terms over the past years, causing resentment in Iraq’s central government.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan region also lay claim to a tract of land that stretches from Iraq's eastern border with Iran to its western frontier with Syria.

[Aslan]

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - After weeks of heated political debate, the Kurdistan Region’s parliament decided on Sunday in a majority vote to extend Massoud Barzani’s term as president for another two years.

The decision angered opposition MPs who broke up the session, jeered and whistled in protest and damaged property inside the hall.

“This decree was passed for the greater good of the Kurdistan Region and to create a consensus on amending Kurdistan’s constitution,” Sunday’s parliamentary decree read.

In response to opposition groups who called the extension undemocratic, Fazil Mirani, head of the political bureau of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) told Rudaw: “This does not mean Barzani will serve the full two years as president. We have not completely closed the doors to dialogue.”

The unexpected decision followed an agreement the day before the parliament vote between the KDP and its ruling partner, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in the city of Sulaimani.

Mirani said that Barzani staying as president for two more years would enable political parties and parliament to find a way out of the current deadlock over the draft constitution, which the KDP wants ratified but the opposition and other parties want returned to parliament for amendments.

“During these two years there will be serious efforts to hold talks and find a consensus on the constitution and the next presidential election,” Mirani said.

Defending the house vote, Kurdistan parliamentary speaker Arsalan Bayiz said that he had personally discussed the possibility of extending Barzani’s term with the leaders of the three opposition groups.

But opposition groups were united in their angry reaction to the move.

Muhammad Hajji, a senior official of the largest opposition Change Movement (Gorran), said the move by parliament amounts to “political immorality.”

“We’ve lost trust in the leadership of both the PUK and KDP,” Hajji said. “What they did today was far from what they had promised all along; from today, Barzani is not the president of the Kurdistan Region, but the president of his party’s political bureau.”

With a majority of the 111-seat Kurdish parliament in their possession, the PUK and KDP easily passed the law, settling the controversial issue of Barzani’s presidency.

Hiwa Mirza Amin, an official of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, said that his party opposes the decision, and had warned the parliamentary speaker about making such a move.

Bilal Sileman, member of the Islamic League (Komal) called the parliament move a “coup.” He said that his party leader had told the parliamentary speaker clearly that he could not agree to extend Barzani’s presidency. He had likened the request to maneuvers by fallen dictators such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak or Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

But Mirani countered that, “The opposition is playing with fire by comparing Kurdistan with Egypt and Libya.” He said that the opposition groups should appreciate that is it better to head and prepare for the next elections in a peaceful and calm atmosphere.

But Gorran’s political office dismissed Mirani’s reasoning, warning that “The KDP is trying to monopolize Kurdistan for itself, but it is only a dream which we will turn into a nightmare.”

Gorran MPs were particularly angry with the PUK -- Gorran’s own mother party -- for siding with the KDP over the issue.

Following the parliamentary session, PUK MPs said that their leader Jalal Talabai had been informed of the agreement with the KDP and that he had consented to the extension of Barzani’s presidency.

Talabani has been recuperating from a stroke in a hospital in Germany since December.

“The PUK was faced with two unwanted options,” read a statement by the PUK political bureau on Sunday. “But it chose the option that provides a chance for a national consensus on the constitution and preserves Kurdistan’s political legitimacy. On that basis, PUK MPs voted for the decree.”

[Cewlik]

If the opposition would dont demand the change of the constitution, for which they also voted, the presidential elections would be held on time, where Barzani would win with 70% accroding to a survey.

The opposition created this dispute about the constitution, just for own benefits and to prevent Barzanis candidacy.

So that was a rightful decision to extend Barzanis term as President.

Hopefully the dispute about the constitution, which the opposition created, will be solved in this 2 years so that presidential elections can be held.