A ruling Kurdish party has resolved not to work with Iraq's new President Nizar Amedi, officials told The National on Sunday, saying the vote had not been conducted properly.
Mr Amedi, 58, was sworn in as President on Sunday. He was elected in a special parliamentary session on Saturday, ending five months of post-election wrangling.
A former environment minister, Mr Amedi has led the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)'s political office in Baghdad since 2024. He won 227 of 249 votes cast in a second-round ballot.
The President, whose role is considered largely ceremonial role, is in effect chosen by Iraq’s top Kurdish parties – as by convention he must be a Kurd.
Mr Amedi emerged ahead of several other candidates including Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who was the candidate for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
It is the KDP that has now rejected the vote, saying the process did not represent Kurdistan. The party said the vote was “conducted in a manner that was outside the approved laws of the council.”
The session’s agenda was set without proper adherence to parliamentary rules, said the party, describing the move as a breach of legal procedure.
“The KDP will not accept this process because he was elected by the Shia [Shiite] majority, which is backed by Iran,” a KDP official told The National. “So the new President represents Iranian-backed militias but not the Kurds. Unless there is a new election, the KDP will not deal with the current President.”
Another official from the KDP told the party objected to the way the process had been conducted and the principle behind the selection.
“The KDP’s position is rooted in a consistent national standard: each component in Iraq should choose its own representative based on its democratic weight and the will of its people,” he told The National.
Under Iraq's power-sharing system, the president must be a Kurd, the parliamentary speaker a Sunni and the prime minister a Shiite.
“Just as other components have selected the prime minister and the speaker through their internal consensus, the Kurdish position should reflect the same principle,” said the official.
“The voting process not only undermined democratic norms but also risks creating internal Kurdish tension and broader instability within Iraq’s political system.”
Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at London's Chatham House, told The National the KDP had boycotted the session in an attempt to stop it as they were not in agreement with the PUK about the presidency position.
To the KDP, “the presidency needs to be an internal Kurdistan discussion and agreement, before going to parliament. The PUK went ahead with it, showing that they have ties with the Co-ordination Framework and other parties,” he said.
The Co-ordination Framework comprising Shiite parties, mostly linked to Iran, is the largest bloc in parliament and will be able to select the next prime minister but its members have yet to agree on a candidate.
The process of government formation requires a parliament to first elect the president, who will then invite the prime ministerial candidate of the largest bloc to form the cabinet.
Mr Amedi now has 15 days to appoint a prime minister, expected to be former head of government Nouri Al Maliki, despite US concerns over the choice.
In Iraq, which has long trodden a tightrope between Iran and the US, its closest allies, the prime minister wields significant power.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani welcomed Mr Amedi to office and said “we look forward to fulfilling the decisive next step of forming a strong coalition government grounded in national and constitutional principles”.
