LIVE: Kurdistan Parliament convenes to receive Masrour Barzani’s candidacy as PM
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) — The Kurdistan Parliament on Tuesday resumed its suspended session from Monday to receive the winner of the elections’ nominee for the post of Prime Minister of the autonomous Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani.
Barzani was presented by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which won the Sept. 2018 elections and secured 45 seats, as its candidate for the post. The KDP beat out the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) 21, and Gorran (Change) Movement, which won 12 seats out of the total 111-seat of the regional parliament.
Barzani is currently the Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC). He must secure a 50+1 majority vote from lawmakers in attendance before the parliament’s leadership can present the nominee to the president of the Kurdistan Region.
On Monday, Nechirvan Barzani was sworn in as the new President of the autonomous region. On Wednesday, the President is expected to issue a formal letter asking Masrour Barzani, who is will be voted on as the candidate for Prime Minister on Tuesday, to form the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet within 30 days of being selected.
SHORT BIO ON MASROUR BARZANI
Born in 1969 in Erbil’s Balakayati area, Barzani became a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter at the age of 16 in 1985.
He is married and has three sons and a daughter.
Barzani earned a degree in International Studies at the American University in Washington DC, and continues his post-graduate studies in Peace and Conflict Resolutions.
In 1998, he returned to the Kurdistan Region and was elected by the KDP's 12th Congress to the Central Committee.
In 2010, he was elected to the Leadership Council and then selected as a KDP Politburo member.
In 2012, he was appointed by then-President Masoud Barzani as Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) to oversee the region’s security, military intelligence, and intelligence services.
Editing by Nadia Riva