Now, Kurdish parties strive to avert a crisis instigated by this issue at a time when their region is surrounded by conflict to the south and west.
According to the Iraqi Kurdish presidency law passed in 2005, if the president's seat becomes vacant, then the speaker of parliament should take over the president's duties and a new president should be elected within 60 days.
At the center of the debate around the question of the presidency is the nature of the political system in Iraqi Kurdistan and whether or not Barzani can run for the post again after 10 consecutive years in office.
Barzani himself said earlier this month that he will honor whatever decision the Kurdish parliament and political parties agree upon regarding his presidency.
Other parties have not yet shown any willingness to challenge Barzani by putting forward possible candidates for the job.
Right now, the president is the top executive and most powerful official in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the Kurdish system, which critics dub presidential or semi-presidential, the parliament has very little oversight powers or ability to challenge the president. For instance, Barzani's KDP has 38 seats in the 111-member parliament, meaning the 83-seat threshold needed to unseat him will be impossible to achieve.
Many argue that given Kurdistan's diverse political landscape where no force has an outright majority to run the government, a system with a strong president will not succeed.
"We believe the best form for Kurdistan is a parliamentary democracy where the president only has ceremonial powers," Rabun Maruf, a parliamentarian from Gorran (Movement for Change) — a party that was until last year the major Kurdish opposition group and still a vocal critic of the political system in Iraqi Kurdistan — told Al-Monitor.
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