| Post: | Prime Minister |
| Body: | Kurdistan Region |
| Insignia: | Coat of arms of Kurdistan Regional Government.svg |
| Insigniasize: | 120px |
| Insigniacaption: | Political Emblem |
| Incumbent: | Masrour Barzani |
| Incumbentsince: | 10 June 2019 |
| Appointer: | Kurdistan Region Parliament |
| Termlength: | Four years, renewable |
| Formation: | 4 July 1992 1 March 2006 |
The Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region is the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, governing semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. The government is elected as part of the Kurdistan Region Parliament.[1]
After the 1992 parliamentary election resulted in the two main parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), each holding 50 out of 100 seats, they decided to create a unity government (which was not recognized by the Ba'athist Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein).[2] The unity government soon collapsed and in 1994 a civil war broke out, which lasted until 1998. This resulted in the establishment of two Kurdistan Regional Governments in 1996, a KDP-controlled one in Erbil and a PUK-controlled one in Sulaymaniyah, each with their own Prime Minister.[2]
| width=50% valign=top | PUK-controlled partPrime Ministers of the PUK-controlled Kurdistan Regional Government:[3]
| width=50% valign=top | KDP-controlled partPrime Ministers of the KDP-controlled Kurdistan Regional Government:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After the reconciliation between the KDP and PUK, parliamentary election was held on January 30, 2005, and an agreement was made to let a KDP leader become Prime Minister for the first term and a PUK Prime Minister to become President for the second term, so Nechervan Barzani became Prime Minister. Barham Salih held the post of Prime Minister until 17 January 2012 after which he relinquished his position to Nechervan Idris Barzani.[4]
Prime Ministers of Kurdistan Regional Government:
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Political party | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||
| 1 | Nechirvan Barzani | 1 March 2006 | 31 August 2009 | Kurdistan Democratic Party | |||
| 2 | Barham Salih | 1 September 2009 | 17 January 2012 | Patriotic Union of Kurdistan | |||
| (1) | Nechirvan Barzani | 17 January 2012 | 10 June 2019 | Kurdistan Democratic Party | |||
| 3 | Masrour Barzani | 10 June 2019[5] | Incumbent | Kurdistan Democratic Party | |||