Kurdistan Parliament Extends Barzani Presidency, Opposition Enraged

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.”