Veteran Kurdish politician wins Iraqi presidency as traditional alliances falter

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s parliament named veteran Kurdish politician Barham Salih as president on Tuesday in a hotly contested race that brought the assembly one step closer to naming the nation’s next prime minister.

Salih, 58, was chosen as president, a largely ceremonial post, after trouncing his Kurdish rival by a vote of 219 to 22, signaling the overwhelming support among the legislature’s vast Arab majority for Salih’s brand of conciliatory politics.

The vote showed how the sectarian loyalties within Iraq’s Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab communities that prevailed since the U.S. invasion in 2003 are now breaking down, giving way to more pragmatic coalitions that cut across sectarian lines.

But the vote left no clear winner in the ongoing tussle between Iran and the United States to place their allies in Iraq’s key political posts as Washington seeks to isolate Tehran economically and politically. That competition will reach its most critical phase as lawmakers fight to form a coalition large enough to nominate the next prime minister. Iraq’s constitution requires that happen within the next 15 days.

Salih, who has previously served as deputy prime minister of Iraq and prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government, is seen as a moderate Kurdish figure who favors maintaining strong relations with both the United States and Iran while promoting Kurdish interests through cooperation with Iraq’s central government rather than confrontation.

The urbane, British educated politician is a favorite with Western diplomats and American military generals and founded the American University of Iraq Sulaimani in 2007.

Salih could improve relations between Iraq’s Kurds and the central government in Baghdad after a Kurdish bid for independence last year threatened armed conflict. But his ascension to the presidency has deepened growing acrimony within the KRG’s dynastic politics.

According to a power-sharing agreement put in place following the United States, Kurds have traditionally nominated a single figure for the post of president from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan — one of two dominant parties in the autonomous north of Iraq.

This year, amid competing visions for the future of the KRG, the Kurds failed to agree on a candidate, and the Kurdish Democratic Party put forth Fouad Hussein, the former chief of staff to powerful party leader Masoud Barzani.

Hussein initially appeared to be the front-runner after Barzani rallied support for his candidate from one faction of Shiite lawmakers. But another bloc, drawing on both Shiites and Sunnis, insisted the Kurds unite behind a single candidate, according a member of parliament involved in the talks who requested anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

When the PUK and the KDP failed to agree on a deal, the vote went to parliament. Salih won the first round of voting by a margin of 165 to 89 — drawing condemnation from Barzani and provoking Hussein to drop out of the race. But the vote went ahead anyway, and lawmakers voted according to their preference in the absence of instructions from party leadership, marking a major departure from previous ballots in parliament.

Salih, who reluctantly supported the independence referendum, was seen as a much more palatable option for Arab lawmakers over Hussein, who was one of the architects of the independence movement.

The president of Iraq remains a largely ceremonial position, with the prime minister holding the vast majority of executive power. But Jalal Talabani, who held the position for two terms, used the office to mediate between Iraq’s central government and Kurdistan, while emerging as one of Iraq’s most important statesman.

His successor, Fuad Masum, failed to match Talabani’s influence and turned the office into a “trivial position,” said Renad Mansour, an expert on Iraqi and Kurdish politics with Chatham House.

Talabani’s death last year accelerated the worsening relations between Kurdish parties — and the Kurdish region’s ties with Iraq’s central government.

Many Kurds and Iraqis see Salih as a politician in Talabani’s mold, with the credibility to improve relations with Baghdad. But he is unlikely to quickly repair fraying ties in the Kurdish region.

“The conflict over the presidency reveals the lack of trust between the two parties,” Mansour said of the PUK and KDP.

The winner of the competition for supremacy between the two parties within the autonomous Kurdish region remains unclear, and Tuesday’s vote could have far reaching consequences for the intra-Kurdish power struggle.

On Sunday, Kurds voted for the Kurdish region’s parliament but results have not yet been released amid accusations of fraud and irregularities.

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