Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan

Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan
Political Emblem
Incumbent Nechervan Barzani since 17 January 2012
Appointer	Kurdistan Parliament
Term length	Four years, renewable
Inaugural holder	Fuad Masum (de facto) Nechervan Barzani (de jure)
Formation	4 July 1992 (de facto) 1 March 2006 (de jure)
Website	http://www.krg.org/

The Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan heads the Kurdistan Regional Government, the government of Kurdistan Autonomous Region in northern Iraq. The government is elected as part of the Kurdistan National Assembly.

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).

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.

Prime Ministers of the PUK-controlled Kurdistan Regional Government:

Prime Ministers of the KDP-controlled Kurdistan Regional Government:

After the reconciliation between the KDP and PUK, parliamentary elections were 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.