The decision to allow Barzani to stay on as President was heavily criticised by opposition parties. And the law that allowed Barzani to remain in office had a line that said no extension would be possible after August of 2015. However yet again, critics say, there's political trickery afoot.
The Constitution for Iraqi Kurdistan has never been completed and it contains an amendment that says the following: "The term of the President of the Region is four years”, and “the President can nominate himself for a second term, as of the day the Constitution enters into force”. This means that if the Constitution is not endorsed in its current form, Barzani will have the right to nominate himself for another two terms in addition to the two and a half terms he's already served.
Understandably this has caused a lot of arguments in Iraqi Kurdistan already. The two sides to the argument can be broadly defined as those who would defend the democratic process and those who want to defend Iraqi Kurdistan's interests.
“We need to pay attention to the democratic process in our own society,” argues Ahmedi Mala, a Kurdish writer and lecturer at the University of Castile–La Mancha in Spain. “We should not only confront this problem but also all other problems related to this subject – starting from the selection of the local school's headmaster and ending in high ranking positions like this one. When we demand that the people in power change, this should not only apply to Kurdistan but also to Baghdad,” Mala told NIQASH.
And Mala believes that the argument many use as justification for continuing Barzani's term is moot. “There are many local people who could handle this job well and who could deal with the crises that Iraq, and Iraqi Kurdistan, are facing,” he says. “If crisis is the justification given for extending Barzani's term, then the whole Middle East would suffer [from having the same leaders for a long time].”
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