Iraq's Parliament on Saturday elected Nizar Amedi as president after months of delay and negotiations.
Mr Amedi, former minister of environment, became the country’s sixth president since the US-led invasion of 2003. He beat several other candidates that included Iraq's Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein.
Mr Amedi was the candidate of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two ruling Kurdish parties in the northern Kurdistan region, who usually, in agreement, nominates a candidate for the position.
A separate agreement between the two largest Kurdish parties allows the PUK to nominate the president, while the presidency of the Kurdish region is held by a nominee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Under a power-sharing system established in 2003 to avoid sectarian violence, the Iraqi prime minister must be Shiite, the parliamentary speaker Sunni, and the president, a largely ceremonial role, Kurdish.
Mr Amedi, an engineer born in northern Iraq's Dohuk province, served as an aide to two presidents: Jalal Talabani and Fouad Massoum.
He also heads the PUK’s office in Baghdad, making him a vital figure who bridges relations between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad's central government.
The vote comes five months after a general election that did not produce a bloc with a decisive majority, resulting in delays and a power struggle between the main political parties.
The failure to elect a president has delayed the formation of a new government.
The process requires a parliament to first elect the president, who will then invite the prime ministerial candidate of the largest bloc to form the cabinet.
Now, Mr Amedi has the heavy assignment to allocate a prime minister.
The Iraqi constitution stipulates the president has 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government and assuming the position of prime minister.
The dominant bloc, the Shiite Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-allied parties, announced in January that it would nominate former Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, despite opposition from Washington.
The bloc will now have to decide whether to proceed with the nomination of Mr Al Maliki or select another candidate.
The parliament abandoned two previous attempts to elect the president after the KDP and PUK failed to reach an agreement on the post.
The constitutional deadline to elect a president is within 30 days of the first session of the new parliamentary term, which began on December 29.
Kurdish unity
A senior KDP official told The National before the vote that the presidency does not belong to a single party and that there was “interference from external parties” that it rejects, referring to the dominant Shiite bloc in parliament, the Co-ordination Front.
“We want to vote as one, united behind a single candidate, someone who truly represents all Kurdish parties, not a president imposed through the votes of others,” the official said.
A second KDP official told The National that “Kurdish unity, reactivating the Kurdish Regional Government's Parliament, and forming a new regional cabinet are essential” and should be top of the next president’s agenda.
The KRG held its last regional parliamentary election in October 2024 but a new government is yet to be formed. The KDP won 39 of the 100 seats, while the PUK took 23. There is no party with an outright majority, which is why the formation has stalled over the allocation of key government posts.
"Now, further negotiations between the Kurdish political parties are expected in the coming days and week, regarding the formation of the Kurdish cabinet," he said.
