Iraq slips into constitutional vacuum as presidential deadlock drags on

2026-02-08 - 07:56

Shafaq News Iraq is sliding deeper into a constitutional vacuum after parliament failed to elect a president, a delay that has stalled the subsequent step of nominating a prime minister and raised concerns of an open-ended governance crisis that could paralyze key state institutions. The impasse follows two failed presidential voting sessions on February 1 and January 27. Although the Council of Representatives has scheduled a new parliamentary session for February 9, the agenda notably excludes a vote to elect the president, a signal of how entrenched the deadlock has become. At the center of the problem lies a long-running dispute between Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The presidency has traditionally gone to the PUK, which argues that