ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Region parliament passed a bill to suspend the presidency of the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday until the next parliament is selected.
Gorran and KDP hold the most seats in Kurdistan's parliament.
This is a developing story... Updated at 3:13 p.m.
According to the bill, the Kurdistan Region presidency entity was suspended until the next parliament replaces the current one. During the first two years of the next (fifith) parliament, the fate of the presidency must be decided on.
The decree came after the Change Movement (Gorran) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) submitted two bills with the former calling for the suspension of the Kurdistan Region presidency and the latter rejecting holding the presidential and parliamentary elections both on September 30. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) also voted in favor of the bill.
Gorran and KDP hold the most seats in Kurdistan's parliament.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) blocs voted against bill.
Earlier on Wednesday, the KIU blamed Kurdistan’s current political stalemate on the issue of the presidency, calling it a “sabotage of the parliament for two years.”
The power of the presidency authorities were distributed to legislative, executive and judiciary branches after Masoud Barzani stepped down on November 1, 2017.
Gorran, the KIU, and Komal are in opposition to Barzani's KDP the PUK — traditionally the two largest parties in the Kurdistan Region which overwhelmingly secured more seats in Iraq’s disputed parliamentary election on May 12.
Gorran holds the second-most seats in Kurdistan’s parliament and called Barzani’s twice-extended term as president illegal.
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