ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish political parties have turned to legal experts as meetings continued behind closed doors to hammer out a deal on the region’s presidency.
Rudaw reporters learned that each political bloc brought forward its own law scholars Friday to seek a legal way out of the impasse that has seemingly left the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) without a leader.
No consensus was expected to be reached on Friday with meetings scheduled to continue until an agreement is met, a Rudaw reporter at the scene of the meetings said.
The current dispute is whether Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, whose term as president officially ended Thursday, should be allowed to extend his time in office.
The KDP claims Barzani is still in power based on an agreement reached last week between the parties in parliament. His followers maintain that the ongoing war with ISIS as well as a grinding economic crisis make this the wrong time for general elections.
Barzani’s critics, namely the Gorran (Change) Movement, argue that the speaker of parliament, Gorran’s Youssif Mohammed, should serve as acting president until a vote can be held.
With the political stalemate in place, observers say Barzani is still calling the shots. Meanwhile, the tensions between parties have raised doubts among average Kurds who are all-too-familiar with intra-party disputes.
Barzani, whose nephew is the region’s prime minister, has been president since 2005. He was re-elected by nearly 70 percent in the region’s first direct presidential elections in 2009, and his term was extended for two years in 2013.
