President of Kurdistan Region

"President of Kurdistan" redirects here. For other uses, see President of Kurdistan (disambiguation).

The president of Kurdistan Region is the head of semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. They are part of the Kurdistan Presidency Council.^[1] The current president of Kurdistan Region is Nechirvan Barzani, who assumed office on 10 June 2019.^[2]

President of Kurdistan Region
Seal of the president
Flag of the president
Incumbent Nechirvan Barzani since 10 June 2019
Style	His Excellency
Appointer	elected in KRG parliament (if possible)
Term length	Four years, renewable once
Inaugural holder	Jalal Talabani (de facto) Masoud Barzani (de jure)
Formation	4 July 1992 (de facto) 14 June 2005 (de jure)
Deputy	Vice President of Kurdistan Region
Website	presidency.gov.krd/en/

List of presidents

1992–2005

After the 1992 parliamentary election resulted in the two main parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), each holding 50 out of 100 seats, they decided to create a unity government (which was not recognized by Ba'athist Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein).^[3]

Kurdistan Region after the 1998 cease-fire. Green area controlled by the PUK, Yellow area controlled by the KDP

The unity government soon collapsed and in 1994, a civil war broke out, which lasted until 1998. This resulted in the establishment of two Kurdistan Regional Governments in 1996, a KDP-controlled one in Erbil and a PUK-controlled one in Sulaymaniyah, each with their own president.^[3]

PUK-controlled part President of the PUK-run Kurdistan Regional Government:[4] No. Portrait Name (Birth–Death) Term of office Political party Took office Left office Time in office 1 Jalal Talabani (1933–2017) 4 July 1992 6 April 2005 12 years, 276 days Patriotic Union of Kurdistan

KDP-controlled part President of the KDP-run Kurdistan Regional Government:[4] No. Portrait Name (Birth–Death) Term of office Political party Took office Left office Time in office 1 Masoud Barzani (born 1946) 19 May 1992 14 June 2005 13 years, 26 days Kurdistan Democratic Party

2005–present

After an official reconciliation between the KDP and PUK in October 2002,^[5] parliamentary elections were held on 30 January 2005 and on 14 June 2005 the KDP-leader Masoud Barzani was sworn in by the parliament in as new president and Kosrat Rasul Ali as the new vice president.^[6] In 2009 the system was changed to elect the president and on 25 July 2009 presidential elections were held resulting in Barzani's re-election.^[7] On 29 October 2017, amidst the 2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, Barzani announced his intentions to step down as president, effective 1 November.^[8]

President of Kurdistan Region:

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office			Political party
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Masoud Barzani (born 1946)	14 June 2005	1 November 2017	12 years, 140 days	Kurdistan Democratic Party
2		Nechirvan Barzani (born 1966)	10 June 2019	Incumbent	6 years, 63 days	Kurdistan Democratic Party

Timeline

Election results

2009 Kurdistan Region presidential election

Candidate	Popular votes	Percentage
Massoud Barzani	1,266,397	69.6
Kamal Mirawdily	460,323	25.3
Halow Ibrahim Ahmed	63,377	3.5
Ahmed Mohammed Rasul	18,890	1.4
Hussein Garmiyani	10,665	0.6
Total	1,819,652	100%

• 1992 Kurdistan Region general election
• 2009 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election
• 2013 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election
• 2018 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election
• 2024 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election

See also

• Vice President of Kurdistan Region
• Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region
• Politics of Iraqi Kurdistan