President of Kurdistan Region


The President of Kurdistan Region is the head of an autonomous region in northern Iraq. They are part of the Kurdistan Presidency Council. The current President of Kurdistan Region is Nechirvan Barzani, who assumed office on 1 June 2019.

1992–2005

After the 1992 parliamentary election resulted in the two main parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, each holding 50 out of 100 seats, they decided to create a unity government.
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.

PUK-controlled part

President of the PUK-run Kurdistan Regional Government:

KDP-controlled part

President of the KDP-run Kurdistan Regional Government:

2005–Present

After an official reconciliation between the KDP and PUK in October 2002, 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 of Kurdistan Region. In 2009 the system was changed to elect the president and on 25 July 2009 presidential election were held resulting in Barzani's re-election. On 29 October 2017, amidst the 2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, Barzani announced his intentions to step down as president, effective 1 November.
President of Kurdistan Region:

Election results

CandidatePopular votesPercentage
Massoud Barzani1,266,39769.6
Kamal Mirawdily460,32325.3
Halow Ibrahim Ahmed63,3773.5
Ahmed Mohammed Rasul18,8901.4
Hussein Garmiyani10,6650.6
Total1,819,652 100%