KDP Frustrated With Defeat Over Iraq’s Presidency

     

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) finds itself on the defensive after the election of Iraq’s president. The party believed it was on the ascendency due to the disarray of its partner the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) but that trend has been reversed recently.

 

On April 11 the PUK’s Nizar Amedi was elected Iraq’s president. This was despite a boycott by the KDP. The party was hoping to gain the position as part of its strategy to take all the leading Kurdish positions in both Kurdistan and Baghdad. The PUK’s leader Bafel Talabani was able to forge alliances with Prime Minister Mohammed Sudani, Qais Khazali of Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, Ammar Hakim of Hikma and Mohammed Halbusi of the Progress party and maintain the presidency which has been with the PUK since 2005. Amedi’s election is also part of Sudani’s plan to stay in office. That would be another setback for the KDP which backs his rival Nuri al-Maliki.

 

Since then the KDP announced a boycott of parliament and suggested that new elections be held in Kurdistan since no new government has been formed there since voting in October 2024. The party has also complained about the PUK’s alliance with the opposition party New Generation which gives Talabani almost the same number of regional government (KRG) parliamentarians as the KDP.

 

This all reflects problems with the KDP’s policies.

 

In Kurdistan it won a clear majority in the 2024 balloting and hoped to impose its will over the KRG. Since then Talabani was able to make several moves which now gives him control of 38 seats versus 39 for the KDP in the Kurdish parliament. The Barzanis who control the KDP will now have to forge a new strategic relationship with the PUK instead of treating it like a lesser party.

 

In Baghdad Al Alam and The National Context have pointed out that the KDP has lost influence. Both noted that the Barzanis hardly travel to the capitol to maintain relations. That means they have not reached out to the newer politicians who are taking power there. Instead they aligned with Maliki when they were one of his biggest critics during his second term as premier calling him a dictator.

 

Finally the KDP’s setbacks highlight the Barzanis’ hubris. They have begun complaining that Kurdish rights and quotas within the Iraqi government are being denied by these recent moves. This despite the fact that a Kurd is still the president. It shows that the Barzanis consider themselves the voice of their community and no one else.

 

SOURCES

 

Al Alam, “Amidi’s “Veto”: has the Era of Barzani’s “Veto” Ended?” 4/12/26

- “The KDP’s “Isolation” from the Presidency to Kirkuk: A Series of Successive “Defeats” Ending in a Parliamentary Boycott,” 4/19/26

 

Kurdistan 24, “KDP Rejects Iraqi Presidential Election Process, Citing Procedural Violations and Kurdish Consensus Breach,” 4/11/26

 

The National Context, “How a Cross-Sectarian Bloc Led by Iraq’s Next Generation Is Reshaping the Country,” 4/16/26

- “Iraq’s Presidential Vote Exposes KDP’s Shrinking Reach in Baghdad,” 4/13/26

 

Rudaw, “KDP says to boycott iraqi parliament sessions indefinitely,” 4/18/26

- “Senior KDP official says dissolving parliament, snap elections options to end political impasse,” 4/19/26