Iraqi parliament elects Fuad Masum as president
Iran Press TV
Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:37PM GMT
The Iraqi parliament has elected veteran Kurdish politician, Fuad Masum, to serve as the country's next president amid efforts to form a new government.
Fuad Masum managed to garner most of the votes cast in a Thursday session of the parliament, and was declared as the president of the republic by parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi.
Masum was born in 1938 and served as the first prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region more than two decades ago.
As a member of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, Masum has also managed to edge his rival former deputy prime pinister Barham Saleh in a vote by Kurdish lawmakers at the parliament.
The selection of a new president is the next step in the formation of a new government in Iraq, which is grappling with the foreign-backed militancy of Daesh terrorists.
The post of president goes to Iraqi Kurds under an unofficial traditional power-sharing deal.
Last week, Iraq's parliament elected Salim al-Jabouri from the Sunni minority group in the parliament as its speaker.
The next step will be choosing a prime minister, which is left for the Shia majority bloc at the parliament.
MOL/AB
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