Former minister Nizar Amedi is new Iraqi prez

Baghdad: Iraqi Parliament elected former environment minister Nizar Amedi as the country’s new president, following a decisive voting session held in Baghdad. 

Speaker Haibet al-Halbousi announced Amedi as the winner after he secured 227 votes in the runoff vote. The president-elect took the constitutional oath, Xinhua reported. The pivotal session was attended by nearly 250 lawmakers from the 329-seat parliament, exceeding the constitutional quorum of 220 members required for the presidential election.

According to the televised session, Amedi, the candidate of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led the first round with 208 votes, while his primary competitors, Muthanna Amin from the Kurdistan Islamic Union and current Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, received 17 and 16 votes respectively. The poll moved to a second round between Amedi and Amin, as no candidate secured a two-thirds majority. Amedi, head of Political Bureau of the PUK in Baghdad, previously held the post of environment minister from 2022 to 2024 and has acted as an adviser to former Iraqi presidents.