Kurdish Abdul Latif Rashid, a former Iraqi minister of water resources, was elected president of Iraq on Thursday by parliament, succeeding Barham Saleh amid a political crisis in the country, Iraqi official television reported.
Rashid was elected in the second round of voting in Parliament, with 162 votes from the 329 occupants, while Barham Saleh, who had been sworn in as president in October 2018, received 99 votes and another eight ballots were declared invalid, according to the source.
Rashid tasked Iran-aligned politician Mohamed Shia al Sudani with forming the Iraqi government a year after the Iraqi legislative elections were held.
Sudani of the Framework for Coordination, an alliance of Shia parties that sympathizes with Iran, has run for prime minister, creating tension that nearly sparked civil strife in the country after followers of influential Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr seized Parliament for two weeks from 30 July to prevent an inaugural plenary session from taking place.
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