The Iraqi Parliament will convene this evening to elect the Iraqi President.

The 329 MPs elected in May will be voting to elect the new President. The Presidency goes to Kurds as per convention.

The first multi-party elections in Iraq after the Saddam regime fell were held in 2005. Since then, the Presidency has gone to a PUK candidate. The first President as per this agreement was the historic leader of the PUK Jalal Talabani.

Their rival KDP would receive the Federal Kurdistan Region’s Presidency. But Masoud Barzani, whose term was extended without elections, left office after the independence referendum in September 2017 and the Iraqi central government took over the disputed territories. His post still hasn’t been filled.

As new conditions emerge in the region, KDP has put up their own candidate, Fuad Hussein, for the first time. Four out of the five presidential candidates are all Kurdish, and the fifth candidate is a Sunni Arab.

BARHAM SALIH VS FUAD HUSEIN

KDP and PUK, rivals in Southern Kurdistan, are now also running against each other in Baghdad. Both parties’ candidates are holding meetings to garner support from other groups. 58 year old Berhem Salih has served as the Deputy Prime Minister in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Prime Minister. In this sense, he has the advantage in convincing other administrators in Baghdad.

His rival, KDP’s 69-year-old candidate Fuad Hussein, served as Masoud Barzani’s cabinet director. Hussein was also part of the opposition against Saddam Hussein, and has a certain weight in Baghdad. Hussein was also part of the transition government in Iraq after the US invasion, along with Barham Salih. And, Hussein is of the Shia faith, while the majority of Kurds in the region are Sunni, which may help in garnering support from administrators in Baghdad.

The President must be determined before Wednesday according to the Iraqi constitution. If none of the candidates can win two thirds of the vote today, there will be another session tomorrow.