As the constitutional deadline for electing Iraq's next president approaches on 28 January, eleven candidates are competing for the position. By long-standing convention, the presidency is allocated to a Kurdish politician under the power-sharing system established after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Iraq's 2005 constitution sets specific eligibility criteria for presidential candidates and defines the president's role in appointing the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc to form a new cabinet within one month.
Since 2005, all Iraqi presidents have been Kurds, primarily from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), reflecting an informal power-sharing agreement with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Presidential candidates must be born in Iraq to Iraqi parents, be at least 40 years old, hold a bachelor's degree, and have a clean legal record.
According to established convention, Iraq's presidency is reserved for a Kurd, the prime ministership for a Shia Arab, and the speakership of parliament for a Sunni Arab. The presence of several Kurdish candidates unaffiliated with the main parties underscores uncertainty about Kurdish blocs' ability to unite behind a single nominee before the parliamentary vote.
The constitution requires that the president be elected by a two-thirds majority in parliament, or 220 out of 329 members. This high threshold necessitates broad consensus and enables rival blocs to delay or obstruct the process.
Following the opening of nominations by parliament earlier this month, nearly 80 candidates submitted their credentials. A special parliamentary committee subsequently rejected most applications, leaving only 11 candidates approved.
Although Nizar Amidi is the official PUK nominee, several party figures have entered the race independently, including the incumbent president, Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid.
PUK candidates
Nizar Amidi, the official candidate of the PUK, most recently served as Minister of Environment in Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's government. He resigned in October 2024 to focus on party and political work. Born in Duhok in 1968, Amidi holds a bachelor's degree in engineering and previously worked as a physics teacher in the 1990s. A PUK member since that decade, he currently serves on the party's Leadership Council and leads its Political Bureau in Baghdad.
Amidi has held several senior positions within the presidency, including chief of staff to President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid in 2022, to former president Barham Salih from 2018 to 2022, and to Fuad Masum from 2014 to 2018. He also served as chief of staff to the late Jalal Talabani, Iraq's first Kurdish president, from 2008 to 2014 and as Talabani's personal secretary from 2005 to 2008.
The incumbent president, Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid, is seeking re-election. Born in Sulaimaniyah in 1944, he is fluent in Arabic, Kurdish, and English, and holds British nationality. His political career began in the 1960s with the KDP, before he joined the PUK, where he represented the party in the UK and Europe. He served as Iraq's Minister of Water Resources from 2003 to 2010 and as a senior adviser to former president Jalal Talabani from 2010 to 2018. Rashid holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Liverpool and an M.Sc. and a PhD in Hydraulics from the University of Manchester.
Another prominent contender is Khalid Shwani, a Kurd from Kirkuk who currently serves as Iraq’s justice minister and is a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Born in 1975, Shwani previously served as a member of parliament from 2005 to 2014, representing the PUK. He holds a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Baghdad, a master's degree in constitutional law from the University of Kirkuk, and a PhD in law from Mansoura University. His previous roles include serving as a legal adviser and official spokesperson for the presidency, and as head of parliament’s legal committee.
Veteran PUK figure Hikmat Muhammad Karim, widely known as Mala Bakhtiyar, also submitted his candidacy. Born in 1954 in Khanaqin, he is a former member of the PUK Politburo and a Peshmerga commander. He was formally excluded from the race on 13 January, reportedly for failing to meet educational requirements.
KDP candidates
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has officially nominated Fuad Hussein, Iraq's current foreign minister, for the presidency.
Hussein was sworn in as foreign minister in June 2020, having previously served as deputy prime minister for economic affairs and minister of finance. He has held senior roles in both the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, including chief of staff to the Kurdistan Region presidency from 2005 to 2018. Born in Khanaqin in 1949, he studied English literature at the University of Baghdad and later pursued political science and international relations in the Netherlands. He is fluent in Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, English, and Dutch.
The second KDP nominee is Nawzad Hadi Mawlood Mohammed, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), born in Erbil in 1963. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from Salahaddin University and is best known for his 15-year tenure as governor of Erbil from 2004 to 2019. He currently serves on the KDP politburo and leads the party's organising office in Nineveh province.
Independent candidates
Kurdish opposition blocs have also entered the race.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), an opposition party, has nominated Muthanna Amin, with the support of Ali Hama Saleh, leader of the National Stance Movement, also an opposition party. Amin, a sitting MP and senior KIU figure, has argued that while the presidency is a Kurdish entitlement, it should not be monopolised by the KDP or PUK.
Amin holds a master's and a PhD in Islamic philosophy, as well as a master's degree and a higher diploma in political science with a specialisation in international relations. He was a university lecturer at the University of Sulaimaniyah before devoting himself full-time to his role as head of the Kurdistan Islamic Union's parliamentary bloc in the Iraqi Council of Representatives from 2014 to 2018. Furthermore, he is a member of the Leadership Council of the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the International Union of Muslim Scholars. In addition to Kurdish, he is fluent in Arabic and also speaks English.
Other candidates include former Iraqi lawmaker and journalist Shwan Dawdi, who is not affiliated with the main Kurdish parties, and Sardar Abdulla, a former Kurdish MP, politician, and writer.
Amira al-Jabr is the first woman to seek Iraq's presidency, presenting her candidacy as a challenge to the sectarian power-sharing system introduced after 2003 and as a reminder that the constitution permits both women and men to hold the office. It remains unclear whether her nomination will be formally approved.
Given deep political divisions and the demanding parliamentary voting threshold, it is uncertain whether lawmakers will reach a consensus before the constitutional deadline.