2LT International News

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Backed by 219 lawmakers in the parliament, Kurdish politician Barham Salih from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was elected as Iraq’s new president on Tuesday. 

The crucial vote on Tuesday managed to break the political deadlock that has lasted months since the national elections held in the country in May failed to generate a conclusive result.   

The vote also emerged as a decisive first step towards the formation of a new government in Iraq.

The 58-year-old veteran Kurdish politician, Salih, who is widely seen as a moderate, is a former prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraqi Kurdistan (2009 to 2012) and a former deputy prime minister of the Iraqi federal government (2006 to 2009).

During the swearing-in ceremony, Salih said, “I promise to safeguard Iraq’s unity and safety.”

Even though the Iraqi President occupies a largely ceremonial role, after beating his main rival Fuad Hussein from the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP), Salih immediately initiated the process to form a new government. 

Salih appointed the Shi’ite politician Adel Abdul Mahdi as the prime minister-designate.

Now, the Iraqi state TV report pointed out Salih has 15 days to task a nominee from the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government. 

Further, according to Iraq’s constitution, the prime minister-designate would have to form a cabinet within 30 days and present it to the parliament for approval.

Since 2003, after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s three largest ethnic-sectarian components entered a power-sharing deal, which has seen the position of the Parliament speaker traditionally occupied by a Sunni Arab, the Prime Minister being a Shi’ite Arab and a Kurd being named the President. 

Meanwhile, the vote on Tuesday came after the two main Kurdish parties – Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan – decided to pick from 20 nominees, in a bid to end a dispute that delayed the vote in parliament.

Welcoming the decision by lawmakers in the parliament on Tuesday, a lawmaker from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Rebwar Taha declared in a statement, “Today is a remarkable day for Iraq. Democracy won.”