KDP caucus head Omed Khoshnaw said in an interview with Voice of America published on Tuesday, May 14, that Barzani has the pledged support of 91 of the 111 lawmakers in the Kurdistan Parliament.

Together the three parties have 78 seats, which suggests that the 11 MPs holding seats reserved for ethnic and religious minorities, and the single MPs from the Sardam Alliance and the Azadi List (Kurdistan Communist Party) have given their support to Barazani as well.

The KDP would like the other parties to field their own candidates for the presidency because it is a democratic process, he added.

“The Kurdistan Parliament will convene to elect Kurdistan Region’s president after legal measures are done. I think it will be between May 20 and 25,” he said.

The Kurdistan Parliament opened the three-day nomination period on Sunday.

On Sunday, Deputy head of the New Generation Movement caucus in the Kurdistan Parliament Kawa Abdulqadr said the Movement, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), and the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) caucuses were in talks to select a joint candidate for President of the Kurdistan Region.

However, on Monday, the KIG caucus in the Kurdistan parliament said that it would neither field a candidate for President, nor would it vote for KDP candidate because it did not want to lend legitimacy to the process.

On May 6, the Kurdistan Parliament approved legislation that reactivates the Kurdistan Region’s Presidency, NRT reported.

The post was previously held from 2005 to 2017 by Masoud Barzani, who stepped down in the aftermath of the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum.

Reporter’s code: 50101