With just three days to go before finalising candidates, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has already officially announced their candidate, while the PDK hasn’t. The PUK has named Barham Salih as their candidate for the Iraqi Presidency.

PUK spokesperson, Saadi Ahmed Pira, said that Salih was named by a majority vote.

Pira also said that Salih told the PUK leadership he was ready to join the party he left a year ago.

Salih had been the Deputy Secretary General but had left the party after problems which arose over former late party leader, Jalal Talabani. Salih had left the party in 2017 to form the Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), which won two seats in Iraq’s May 12 national election.

The traditional power-sharing system in Iraq means the speaker of parliament is a Sunni Arab while the Prime Minister is from the Shia majority, and the President is a Kurd.

The PUK still requires the approval of the KDP to secure enough votes in the Iraqi Parliament for Salih to become the President of the country.

Meanwhile the PDK has said on Wednesday it will name its own candidate to the Iraqi Presidency, thus casting a shadow over the possibility of the PUK candidate to swiftly take the position as it has traditionally done.

According to a PDK spokesperson the PUK had not informed in advance about its decision to put forward Barham Salih as president. 

The Iraqi parliament is scheduled to convene on 25 September to elect the country’s new President. 

There are several reasons why the PUK has put forward Salih’s name. First of all he is a figure known for his relations with all Kurdish parties and he was also the mediator between parties when critical problems or issues arose. In particular he dealt with the PUK-PDK crisis but also with Gorran.

Salih has also been chosen because he could be a good mediator at a time when Iraq is regaining a central position at international level, in particular as various countries have their own interests to safeguard there. The UK, US and regional powers of Iran and Turkey are all trying to defend their interests in Iraq. In fact, it is possible to see the hand of the US in the final choice of Salih, as a result of intensive diplomatic efforts. 

It is worth it noting that indeed US President, Donald Trump’s special envoy for fighting ISIS, Brett McGurk has spent the last two months in Iraq and Bashur (South) Kurdistan. McGurk had first met with the PDK and Kurdistan Regional Government President and Prime Minister (Masoud and Nechirvan Barzani) several times, before meeting with the PUK and actually holding a joint press conference with them. 

While Turkey is watching carefully at all movements taking place in Iraq, and especially in Bashure Kurdistan (where elections will be held on 30 September), Iran has been having a more set back attitude. It is no coincidence that Salih had actually made some statements containing messages to Iran.