Kurdistan Region's Erbil to elect new governor after 15 years
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The provincial administration of Erbil in the autonomous Kurdistan Region is expecting to see some changes in the coming week as a new governor will be elected, an official said on Monday.
The leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which holds 12 seats out of 30 in the Erbil Provincial Council (EPC), plans to undertake changes in its administration, starting off with the election of a new governor, Kan’an Khailani, the head of the KDP faction in the EPC, was quoted as saying on the party’s official website.
“Following the formation of the new cabinet, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) planned to make changes to the administration of Erbil,” Khailani said.
Nawzad Hadi, 56, the current Governor of Erbil, was elected to the post in 2004.
Since then, about 17,000 projects have been carried out in the province of Erbil, which includes 35 towns and districts.
Khailani stated that the Governorship of Erbil “should go to the KDP,” based on the number of seats it holds, and that the party was nominating Dr. Firsat Sofi, a former KDP lawmaker in the Kurdistan Parliament, as their candidate for the post.
Moving on from his role, Hadi is believed to be headed to the office of the Kurdistan Region Presidency as an advisor, a source from the EPC told Kurdistan 24 on condition of anonymity.
Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, has witnessed significant changes and developments in infrastructure and its economy over the past two decades, namely after the US-led war that toppled the authoritarian system in Iraq in 2003.
Editing by Nadia Riva