Iraqi lawmakers elect Abdul Latif Rashid as new president
The often-deadlocked parliament chose a veteran Kurdish politician as president, who in turn designated Muhammad Shia al-Sudani for the prime minister position.
Following a year of political deadlock since general elections in October 2021, Iraqi lawmakers today elected a new president as part of the process to form a government.
The parliament session was attended by over 260 of 329 members, thus reaching the necessary two-thirds quorum. Some independent MPs boycotted the session because lawmakers have not reached an agreement with the Sadrist faction.
Sadrists won the largest number of seats in last year's elections and made an alliance with the Sunni Taqaddoum party, led by Parliament Speaker Muhammad Halbusi, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barzani. However, the group's leader, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, failed to form a new government after his Shiite rival bloc, the Coordination Framework, convinced more than one-third of lawmakers to boycott sessions for selecting the president. Since choosing the president precedes the selection of a prime minister and requires two-thirds of lawmakers to be present for the vote, the so-called "blocking third" stalled the government's formation.
In June of this year, Sadr withdrew his lawmakers from parliament, opening the way for the Coordination Framework to become the largest bloc and thus select a president in alliance with Sadr's former allies.
