Alwaght- The parliament of the Iraqi Kurdistan region has approved a request by Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), to step down.
The approval came during a closed session on Sunday in the regional capital, Erbil.
The decision comes just over a month after a controversial secession referendum spearheaded by a defiant Barzani, which led to days of high tensions between Iraqi government and Kurdish militias, Peshmerga.
The veteran Kurdish leader and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) initially said he would step down after Iraqi Kurds went the polls on November 1.
But these elections have now been postponed by eight months, leaving it unclear what would happen to the presidency in the interim.
Meanwhile, irate demonstrators, some carrying clubs, stormed the parliament of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region as the Kurdish lawmakers approved a request by Barzani, to step down.
According to witnesses, protesters were angry at Barzani’s decision to resign from the presidency of the region.
Some reports indicated that gunshots were heard as protesters, who claimed they were Peshmerga Kurdish fighters forced their way into the parliament building.
Barzani has been the president of the KRG since 2005. However, he has been under fire by his critics, as his tenure officially expired in August 2015.
In defiance of Iraq’s stiff opposition, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held a non-binding referendum on September 25 on secession from the central government in Baghdad, which slammed the vote as unconstitutional.
