Elected Parliamentary Presidency Is Permanent, Not Interim، Says Speaker

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kurdistan Parliament elected the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Vala Farid as speaker on Wednesday with 52 votes, one more than the 51 required by law, after lawmakers from boycotting parties broke ranks to attend, according to Iraqi media. It also elected Rami Nouri, a Christian lawmaker from Ainkawa, as deputy speaker and Muna Kahveci of the Turkmen Reform Party as secretary, each with 52 votes. It was the parliament’s first quorum since its opening sitting in December 2024.

At a press conference, the KDP bloc congratulated the people of Kurdistan on the reactivation of parliament and the election of its presidency.

It said that

By completing the procedures of the first session, democracy and the people’s vote were respected.

The bloc said the Kurdistan Region is a single united constitutional entity and parliament is the platform of unity, so reactivating it is not against any political side and serves all components and parties. It called on all blocs and lawmakers to return to the chamber and attend sittings to fulfill their duty to voters.

Asked whether the presidency is temporary or permanent, the bloc said the sitting was held according to the bylaws and legal procedures and that any further step would be taken in time and according to the law. It stressed that the elected presidency is “not temporary” but permanent. It said reactivation would have a positive effect and that it is starting to carry out legal procedures for both the Region’s presidency and the formation of the new cabinet, in line with the provisions of the laws in force.

Under Article 48 of the parliamentary election law, the speaker, deputy and secretary are chosen by secret ballot and need an absolute majority of all 100 members, or 51 votes, however many attend. Without votes from lawmakers whose parties stayed away, the KDP and its allies could not have reached 51. The PUK, which called the session illegal, and New Generation, which united its bloc with the PUK’s in January, boycotted, as did the National Stance Movement, the Kurdistan Islamic Union and Komal. The attendees included three lawmakers elected on the PUK’s Erbil list, two of the National Stance Movement’s three lawmakers and a lawmaker from the People’s Front. The National Stance Movement said it expelled its two members for attending.

Farid was elected speaker once before, in February 2019, when the KDP nominated her on a temporary basis until a deal could be reached with the PUK, and she was succeeded that July by the PUK’s Rewaz Fayeq. Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has said the parliament “belongs to no one” and that nobody has the right to obstruct its reactivation. The parliament swore in its members on December 2, 2024, but had not elected a presidency until now. Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the parliament on October 26, and set December 14 to hear a separate case asking it to declare the Kurdistan Regional Government a caretaker government. The current cabinet, formed in 2019 under Masrour Barzani, remains in office.