Hawrami hosts diplomatic seminar for talks on the situation on Kurdistan presidency reform

Hemin Hawrami hosted a seminar for diplomats in Salahaddin for talks on the current political conditions in the Kurdistan region amid rising speculation on Massoud Barzani's potential extension to his tenure as president.

Attended by consul generals and representatives of consulates, the Head of KDP’s Foreign Relations Office initially underlined the situation on the presidency in Iraqi Kurdistan region that commenced based on a ‘de-facto’ agreement between the KDP and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 2005 which would see the incumbent Massoud Barzani would serve as president of Kurdistan and Jalaal Talabani would take on the role of president of Iraq.

President Barzani maintained in June 2015 for democratic presidential elections later this August but due to the unsteadiness of the Kurdistan Election Commission, a two-month period was not sufficient to prepare an election; to preserve democracy, the KDP said the choice of president should be based on a consensus between all political parties.

There was not a single nomination received from other political parties to appoint a candidate for presidency, neither did they agree to a public vote on choice of candidates and insisted Parliamentarians select a new president but the KDP adamantly claimed it must be democratic where the general public to have their say in deciding its destiny.

Speaking about the current conditions in the Kurdistan Region, Mr Hawrami said it has been a difficult 12 months due the ongoing conflict with Islamic State militants which saw the terrorist organization take large swathes of Iraqi territory and the KRG had to deal with up to 250,000 internally displaced people seeking refuge in Erbil.

To conclude the seminar, Mr Hawrami thanked the diplomats for participating at the seminar and the role of the governments represented by the consuls for their support toward Kurdistan in strengthening bilateral relations and improving prospects for investment.

The consuls and representatives in attendance were from France, Italy, Germany, Russia, UAE, Romania, Iran, the Netherlands, the United States, Sudan, China, Republic of Korea, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine.