Braving rockets, Iraq MPs elect president who names PM after year of deadlock
- Vote by Iraq’s parliament for a new president ended a year of deadlock after a national election in October last year
- It was the fourth attempt to elect a president in 2022, and took place shortly after rockets landed around Baghdad’s Green Zone
Despite a rocket attack on Baghdad’s Green Zone, Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday elected a new president who swiftly named a prime minister in hopes of ending a year of political gridlock and violence in the war-scarred nation.
Abdul Latif Rashid, a 78-year-old Iraqi Kurd, was elected as head of state, replacing Barham Saleh, by the assembly in the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic district.
Rashid won more than 160 votes against 99 for the incumbent Saleh, an assembly official said.
The new president swiftly named Shiite politician Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister-designate, tasking him with reconciling feuding Shiite factions and forming a government a whole year after Iraq last went to the polls.
The 52-year-old Sudani, who has the backing of influential pro-Iran factions, vowed to form a government “as quickly as possible”, but faces the daunting task of winning over their rivals, the millions of diehard supporters of fiery cleric Moqtada Sadr.
When Sudani was first proposed in July, the move sparked mass protests by Sadr’s followers, who breached the Green Zone and stormed parliament.