President Masoud Barzani has called for a fundamental change in the mechanism for selecting the President of the Republic of Iraq, stressing that the post should remain the constitutional share of the Kurdish people and must genuinely represent Kurdistan.

In a statement issued on 29 December 2025, Barzani said all Kurdish parties must reach a firm conviction that the presidency belongs to the Kurds and should not be treated as the exclusive property of any single political party. He emphasized that the current approach to choosing the president does not adequately ensure true representation of the people of Kurdistan.

Barzani proposed several alternative mechanisms for selecting the president. These include nominating a candidate through the Kurdistan Parliament, reaching a unified agreement among all Kurdish political parties, or allowing Kurdish deputies and blocs in the Iraqi Council of Representatives to select a consensus candidate.

He underlined that the nominee does not need to belong to either the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) or the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), noting that the candidate could come from another political group or be an independent figure. According to Barzani, the most important criterion is that the individual enjoys broad Kurdish consensus and is capable of genuinely representing the people of Kurdistan at the federal level.