Official: KDP nominates Rebar Ahmed as its candidate for the presidency

Shafaq News/ The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) nominated Kurdistan's Interior Minister, Rebar Ahmed, as its candidate for the presidency of the republic, following the Supreme Federal Court's decision to bar Hoshyar Zebari's bid for the post.

Yesterday, the Supreme Federal Court ruled that former foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari is not eligible to run for the presidency amid corruption allegations.

The court said a decision by parliament to accept his presidential bid was incorrect and it also barred him from running for the post in the future.

The ruling was the court's final decision after it issued an initial ruling last week suspending Zebari's candidacy while it looked into the corruption allegations.

KDP spokesperson, Mahmoud Mohammed, said in a statement earlier today, "Following the political developments and the hurdles created to impede the selection of a president, and in order to resume the constitutional steps of the political process in Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party officially nominates Mr. Rebar Ahmed, the Minister of Interior in the Kurdistan Regional Government, as the party's candidate to the position of the president."

The vote for president, a role traditionally reserved for the Kurds in post-2003 Iraq, primarily pits Ahmed against the incumbent President Barham Salih, who has been the sole candidate of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Rebar Ahmed was appointed as Minister for the Interior in the ninth KRG cabinet in July 2019.

Born in 1968, Ahmed has Master's Degree in National Security at the Iraqi National Security University, Baghdad, and Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering at Salahaddin University.

He was Head of the Joint Coordination Department of Kurdistan Region Security Council, 2012.

The Minister served as Director of Intelligence Analysis of the Kurdistan Region’s Parasteen Agency from 2005 to 2012, Director of Counter-Organized Crimes for the Defense Department of the Kurdistan Region’s Agency from 2000 to 2005, and Director of Organize (Rekhesten) Office from 1997 and 2000.

He was member of the Administration Committee of Kurdistan Students’ Union, 1993-1997. Member of the KDP’s Office, since 1997. Member of the Shanadar Organization for the Reconstruction of Kurdistan, 2000. Member of the Kurdistan Engineering Union.

Ahmed speaks Kurdish, Arabic, English, and Persian.