KDP today

The Kurdistan Democratic Party ran as part of the Kurdistan List in the July 2009 elections to the regional parliament. The List won 1,076,370 votes, gaining 59 out of 100 contested parliamentary seats. A further 11 seats were allocated to minority groups.

At the same time, Masoud Barzani, president of the party, was directly elected President of the Kurdistan Region, winning 1,266,397 votes or 69.6 per cent of the total votes cast.

More than 320 international observers from over 35 countries, including the US, UK and Japan, and organisation such as the United Nations and European Union, monitored the elections. The observers praised the high voter turnout of 78.5 per cent and the competitive environment within which they were held. The EU Presidency said, “The high voter turnout…shows the commitment of the voters to express their political will in a democratic way.”

KDP congress 2010

The party’s 13th congress was held in December 2010 in Erbil, capital of Kurdistan, under the banner of Renewal, Justice and Coexistence. The congress re-elected Masoud Barzani as president of the party and welcomed the appointment of Nechirvan Barzani as vice president.

KDP history in brief

The KDP was founded in 1946 as a national freedom movement. Since then the party has struggled for the rights of the people of Kurdistan and fought against dictatorship in Iraq.

Mustafa Barzani was the party’s leader from 1949 to 1979. He was and remains the father of the Kurdish national movement.

His son Masoud Barzani was elected president of the party in 1979 and has been re-elected by party members at every subsequent congress.