The issue of the presidency took a different route at this stage, and during the era of the two sets of governments, the job actually took shape - but without any genuine legal justification or framework.
In Erbil, the KDP majority apparently wanted Barzani to be their president. “We asked Massoud Barzani many times to take the job but he never accepted,” recalls Jafar Sheikh Ali, who was a member of the KDP present in the KDP-dominated Parliament at the time.
Although Barzani said he didn't want the job, in fact he was still the most powerful political personality and senior administrator in the KDP zone, where his party was so influential.
Then in 1999, Talabani declared himself President of the green zone, Sulaymaniyah, where his party, the PUK, was most influential.
“Talabani was given this post in order to pass a number of important laws,” explains Fareed Asasard, a senior member of the PUK. “Because at that time the politicians in the Sulaymaniyah area didn't have any power.”
“So Talabani held the post of President of the region in the Sulaymaniyah area and Barzani was simply treated like a President in the Erbil area,” explains Latif Sheikh Mustafa, a legal expert and member of another of Iraqi Kurdistan's biggest political parties, the Change movement, which broke away from the PUK. “They did this because both of them wanted to satisfy their desire for power. Not because there was any kind of legal vacuum.”
In 2005, having two leaders like this became untenable – the political system in iraqi Kurdistan had also developed – and the PUK and the KDP agreed that Barzani could become President of the entire region, thanks to a law that was drafted in Parliament.
Of course, there was a price to be paid. The PUK forced the KDP to support the nomination of Talabani as the President of the whole of Iraq, one of the most senior jobs in the whole country. And the deal that was worked out then is still in force today.
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