The complaint was filed by Alia Nassif, an MP from the State of Law Coalition bloc in the Iraqi Parliament, on charges that Ahmed, who is the current Minister of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), participated in the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum in 2017.
The leader of the Sadrist fraction in the Iraqi Parliament, Hassan al-Azari, announced on Wednesday the tripartite alliance between the Sadrist Movement, the Sunni Muslim al-Siyada Coalition and the KDP, nominated Ahmed as a candidate for the president of the republic and Jaafar al-Sadr as prime minister.
The supreme court is to hold another hearing on Thursday to decide on a complaint fled against the current Iraqi President, Barham Salih, over the same charges of participation in the referendum. Salih is the presidential nominee from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
MPs from the KDP in the Iraqi Parliament, Vian Sabri, Sherwan Dobardani and Rebwar Hadi, had previously filed a complaint against Salih, accusing him of violating the republic’s laws and using his power to release a drug trafficker.
Ahmed is KDP’s second candidate for the position of Iraq’s president after the federal court ruled last month to reject the nomination of Hoshyar Zebari as a candidate for the presidency.
In 2016, Iraqi parliament sacked Zebari from his post as finance minister over alleged corruptions and misuse of public funds. Zebari denied the accusations.
Zebari, who also served as Iraq’s foreign minister for more than a decade, lost a no-confidence vote by 158 to 77.
Iraqi parliament is scheduled to hold a session on Saturday to vote on the selection of a candidate for the post of Iraqi president.
On Wednesday, an alliance between the Sadrist Movement led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, part of Sunnis and the KDP announced its candidates for the posts of Iraqi president and prime minister.
The names Ahmed as a candidate for the presidency and Mohammed Jaafar al-Sadr for the country’s prime minister.
Ahmed is the current minister of interior in the Kurdistan Region and Sadr is Iraq’s ambassador to the UK.
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