Barham Salih Elected New President of Iraq

Iraqi lawmakers have elected veteran Kurdish politician Barham Saleh new president of the country, Press TV reported.

 Lawmakers met on Tuesday to elect a new president after a dispute between the two main Kurdish parties delayed the vote on Monday. The two largest Kurdish parties each put forward a candidate for lawmakers to choose.

Saleh from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party was declared as the next president after he defeated Fuad Hussein from the Kurdistan Democratic Party Party (KDP) following two rounds of voting. Saleh won a large majority in the second round.

 The vote went to a second round where Hussein withdrew his candidacy twice which was rejected on both occasions. For the first time, the two largest Kurdish parties each put forward a candidate.

The new president must be elected with two-thirds of the vote in parliament, which is 220 votes. If no candidate meets this threshold, a runoff vote will be held.

The presidency has been reserved for the Kurds since Iraq’s first multi-party elections in 2005, held two years after the US-led invasion.

Under an unofficial agreement dating back to the 2003, Iraq’s presidency, a largely ceremonial role, is held by a Kurd, while the prime minister is Shia Muslim and the parliament speaker is Sunni.

According to the Iraqi state television, Salih asked former Minister of Oil Adil Abdul-Mahdi to form a government.

Abdul-Mahdi was the minister of oil in 2014-2016, under Prime Minister Haider Abadi, Salih’s predecessor.

H.M