In 2005, Parliament nominated Barzani to the job and then in 2009 he was elected to be President through general elections. According to the 2005 laws, the president may only remain in power for two terms. A term is four years.
So Barzani's second term was supposed to end in 2013 and Iraqi Kurdish laws also said he could not nominate himself again. The political situation had changed quite a lot since then though – it was no longer just the KDP and the PUK wrangling about power sharing. Now there were also the Islamic parties and the breakaway Change movement, which had been elected on an anti-corruption platform, to consider. And these parties did not want to see Barzani get the job again.
Nonetheless Barzani clung to the Presidency through clever sleight of legislation that many considered illegal. That smart play gave him another two years – and these ended at midnight, on Wednesday August 20, 2015.
If Barzani wants to stay in power again, he has an even bigger fight ahead of him. Now even the PUK, the KDP's old jousting partner and power sharing “frenemy”, has said that they don't want to see him stay on as President. That is along with all the other parties in Parliament.
Complicating matters further is the incomplete Iraqi Kurdish Constitution. The Constitution, which remains at a draft stage, currently seeks to limit the powers of Iraqi Kurdistan's President and move the entire political system closer to a parliamentary one, where MPs get to elect the President. The disagreement on the presidency is slowing work on the years-in-the-making Constitution and some have even suggested that legal loopholes pertaining to the Constitution may be used to keep Barzani in power.
“The absence of an agreement between the different parties on the President's powers and position has created a lot of problems for us too,” says Khamoush Omar, a member of the committee tasked with drafting the new Constitution.
The main argument that many in Iraqi Kurdistan currently have for wanting to keep Barzani in power is the fact that, at times of crisis, it is important to have a strong leader, one who knows what they are doing. Barzani is not shy about making strong and aggressive statements and he is still seen by many in Iraqi Kurdistan as the best person for the job right now, despite the lack of democratic will behind a further term for him.
Local sociologist Baymand Abdul-Qader says that many in Kurdistan prefer a charismatic leader who is seen as strong, over a just and democratically elected leader.
“Members of tribal societies may consider the removal of a leader from their senior position as an act of degradation,” she warns. Most ordinary Kurds in Iraq can only hope it doesn't come to that.
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