The Iraqi parliament finally reached the legal quorum needed to hold a session to elect the country’s next president, having previously failed to do so on three different occasion since the election of the legislative body over a year ago.
Rashid, Iraq’s former water resources minister and former Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official, was able to beat the incumbent President Salih in the first round of the vote, gaining 156 of the MPs votes as opposed to Salih’s 99.
The election of the president of Iraq requires a two-thirds majority of the number of the members of the parliament, meaning 220 votes. If none of the candidates achieve that requirement, the two with the highest number of votes will move on to the second round of election, whereupon the candidate who receives the majority of votes will be elected as Iraq’s president.
The elected president will then task the PM candidate of the legislature’s largest bloc to form the council of ministers within 15 days, who will then have 30 days to name all ministers of his cabinet.
The results of the second round of the elections are expected to be announced in the upcoming hours. Regardless of the winner, the elected president is set to name Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, the Coordination Framework’s candidate, as the next prime minister.
