ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s parliament speaker on Sunday sent a letter to the country’s chief justice, calling for respecting the constitutional deadlines and urging the prompt election of Iraq’s next president, as Kurdish parties have yet to agree on a unanimous candidate.

In a letter to the head of Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court, Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi urged a legal interpretation of Section 2 of Article 72 of the Iraqi constitution, which stipulates the election of the president within 30 days after the first session of the new parliament. 

“The parliament continues to hold its sessions according to the prepared agenda, without including the item of electing the President of the Republic, due to the failure to achieve the required two-thirds quorum,” Halbousi said to Chief Justice Munther Ibrahim Hussein. 

“Please provide your legal opinion on this matter,” the parliament speaker urged. 

The Iraqi presidency is constitutionally required to be settled by the parliament within 30 days of the new legislature’s first session, with the deadline having passed in this case on January 28.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have yet to agree on a unanimous candidate for the Iraqi presidency – a position traditionally reserved for the Kurds under an informal power-sharing agreement in Iraq. 

This time, the KDP has fielded Iraq’s current Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, while the PUK has nominated Nizar Amedi, Iraq’s former environment minister and the head of the party’s Baghdad office.

KDP officials have repeatedly stressed that the presidency, which has been held by the PUK since 2005, does not belong to a single party.

On Saturday, PUK spokesperson Karwan Gaznayi confirmed that the Kurdish parties failed to agree on a unanimous candidate in a recent meeting between President Masoud Barzani, leader of the KDP, and PUK leader Bafel Talabani, but that the meeting transpired in an “extremely positive” atmosphere.