Iraq elects Kurdish politician Nizar Amidi as president amid war fallout

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s parliament voted Saturday to elect Nizar Amidi, a political official with one of the country’s two main Kurdish parties, as president, five months after a parliamentary election that didn’t produce a bloc with a decisive majority.

His election comes as Iraq is reeling from the fallout of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Iraq became caught in the middle of the conflict, with Iran-backed militias launching attacks on U.S. bases and diplomatic facilities as well as on critical energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Israel carried out airstrikes targeting the militias, some of which killed members of the Iraqi military.

The war and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz also largely halted the oil exports upon which Iraq’s economy depends.

Amidi, a member of the political bureau of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, beat out a roster of candidates that included Iraq’s current Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, who was the pick of the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party.

By convention, Iraq’s president is always Kurdish, while the more powerful prime minister is Shiite and the parliamentary speaker is Sunni.

The vote to elect a president took place more than two months past the constitutional deadline, which requires a president to be elected within 30 days after the first session held by a newly elected parliament.

Amidi, an engineer born in northern Iraq’s Dohuk province, previously served as an aide to two other presidents, Jalal Talabani and Fouad Massoum.

No candidate secured the required two-thirds majority in the first round of voting Saturday, although Amidi was far ahead of the other 15 candidates, securing 208 votes in the first round, while the second candidate — Muthanna Amin Nader, a parliamentarian from the Kurdistan Islamic Union bloc — received 17 votes. As a result, the parliament proceeded to a second round, where the winner is determined by a simple plurality of votes.

Amidi secured 227 votes in the second round, while Nader received 15 votes.

According to the Iraqi constitution, 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 al-Maliki or select another candidate. Current Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had been al-Maliki’s main rival for the nomination before stepping aside to clear the path for him.