Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid elected as new president by Iraqi parliament

The Iraqi parliament elected Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as the new president. The decision was made after hours of several rockets struck Baghdad’s, Green Zone. Abdul Rashid has replaced Iraqi Kurd Barham Saleh as the head of state after the two-round vote in the parliament on October 13, 2022. 

Rashid won the election by more than 160 votes against 99 for Saleh. A first round of voting on the presidential election failed to attend two-thirds of the majority. Iraq had made three failed attempts in 2022 to elect a new president. 

Iraq’s parliament elect Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as president, reports Reuters citing lawmakers pic.twitter.com/yI1bwdA8DV

— ANI (@ANI) October 13, 2022

Who is Abdul Latif Rashid?

1. Abdul Latif Rashid, born on August 10, 1944, has been elected as the 9th President of Iraq. He has completed his graduation from the University of Manchester.
2. Rashid was previously the Minister of Water Resources under the government of Nouri-al-Maliki.
3. Before this, he also served in the same position under both the Iraqi Transitional Government and the Iraqi Interim Government. 
4. Rashid was previously a spokesperson for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in the United Kingdom(UK).
5. Abdul Rashid went to Liverpool University and completed his B.Sc in Civil Engineering. He studied for his M.Sc in 1972 and Ph.D. in 1976 from Manchester University in Engineering. 

Election in Iraq: Key details

1. Almost nine rockets targeted Iraq’s Parliament inside the heavily secured Green Zone, the seat of the government, ahead of a much-anticipated session where lawmakers forged ahead with the making of the next government despite the political issues. 
2. The attacks, which seemed to be an attempt to discourage the session, occurred after the Coordination Framework, an alliance made up of mostly Iran-backed Shiite parties and led by al-Maliki, delivered a formal letter stating to be the largest bloc in Parliament.
3. On September 28, 2022,  three rockets struck the Green Zone as lawmakers prepared to choose the speaker of parliament.

Background

Iraq's president, prime minister, and speaker of the parliament are from different sects in a power-sharing arrangement meant to prevent sectarian conflict. Iraq's president is Kurdish, its prime minister is a Shia, and its parliament speaker is Sunni.

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