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KDP welcomes proposal on region’s presidency with reservations
Saturday, 19 September, 2015
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish political parties made headway on Thursday at the eighth round of talks over the region’s presidency when the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) welcomed a proposal on the mechanism of electing the president and the scope of his powers.
The proposal by the four major parties suggested that the president could either be elected in a direct vote by people but with limited powers or through parliament and enjoy more authority.
The KDP, which insists that the president should be elected by the people saw the first part of the recommendation as a welcome change in the position of the parties and promised to study the proposal before the next round of talks.
However, KDP’s spokesperson Jaafar Eminki said that his party still prefers a system that gives the president real powers with certain accountability to parliament.
“There should not be a confusion between the authority of the prime minister as the executive power who is accountable to parliament and those of the president who would be the highest authority in the country,” a KDP official told Rudaw.
Masoud Barzani, head of the KDP, served as president for eight years 2005-2013 and his term was extended by two years in 2013 by a majority vote in parliament.
Until Thursday the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Change Movement (Gorran), the Islamic Union and the Islamic League had argued that a clear law must be drawn whereby the next president is elected by members of parliament.
At the latest round of talks however, the parties agreed to the president being elected by people with his powers curtailed.
Eminki believes that the other parties “are imposing their will and want to change the law as they wish,”
“Our position is very clear,” Eminki said. “If they want to change the law let the people decide in a vote,”
Despite some reservations, all parties agree that they are inching closer to a possible agreement through a show of goodwill.
“The KDP must know that the other parties have come forward in the spirit of reaching an agreement and must not expect things to only be as it wishes,” a leader of the Islamic Union (Yekgirtu) told Rudaw.
The KDP and other parties expressed optimism at a press conference after Thursday’s meeting and they are expected to debate the latest proposal next week.
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Saturday, 19 September, 2015
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish political parties made headway on Thursday at the eighth round of talks over the region’s presidency when the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) welcomed a proposal on the mechanism of electing the president and the scope of his powers.
The proposal by the four major parties suggested that the president could either be elected in a direct vote by people but with limited powers or through parliament and enjoy more authority.
The KDP, which insists that the president should be elected by the people saw the first part of the recommendation as a welcome change in the position of the parties and promised to study the proposal before the next round of talks.
However, KDP’s spokesperson Jaafar Eminki said that his party still prefers a system that gives the president real powers with certain accountability to parliament.
“There should not be a confusion between the authority of the prime minister as the executive power who is accountable to parliament and those of the president who would be the highest authority in the country,” a KDP official told Rudaw.
Masoud Barzani, head of the KDP, served as president for eight years 2005-2013 and his term was extended by two years in 2013 by a majority vote in parliament.
Until Thursday the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Change Movement (Gorran), the Islamic Union and the Islamic League had argued that a clear law must be drawn whereby the next president is elected by members of parliament.
At the latest round of talks however, the parties agreed to the president being elected by people with his powers curtailed.
Eminki believes that the other parties “are imposing their will and want to change the law as they wish,”
“Our position is very clear,” Eminki said. “If they want to change the law let the people decide in a vote,”
Despite some reservations, all parties agree that they are inching closer to a possible agreement through a show of goodwill.
“The KDP must know that the other parties have come forward in the spirit of reaching an agreement and must not expect things to only be as it wishes,” a leader of the Islamic Union (Yekgirtu) told Rudaw.
The KDP and other parties expressed optimism at a press conference after Thursday’s meeting and they are expected to debate the latest proposal next week.
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