Iraq elects Kurdish politician Nizar Amidi as president amid war fallout

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Iraq’s parliament elected Kurdish politician Nizar Amidi as president on Saturday, breaking a delay that stretched more than two months past the constitutional deadline, according to the Associated Press. Amidi won after lawmakers held a second round of voting following a first round in which no candidate reached the required two-thirds majority.

The AP said the election unfolded amid worsening spillover from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Iraq has found itself caught in the conflict as Iran-backed militias launched attacks on U.S. bases and diplomatic facilities, while U.S. and Israeli airstrikes targeted the militias, including strikes that killed members of the Iraqi military.

The war fallout has also disrupted Iraq’s oil exports, the AP reported, as Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz largely halted shipments that underpin the country’s economy. The election of a new president, while by convention a Kurdish post, takes place against this broader backdrop of security pressure and economic strain.

Amidi beat a slate of candidates that included Iraq’s current foreign minister, Fuad Hussein, the AP said, who was backed by the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party. Under Iraqi convention, the presidency goes to a Kurd, the prime minister is Shiite, and the parliamentary speaker is Sunni.

The AP reported that the vote for president took place more than two months after the constitutional deadline, which calls for electing a president within 30 days after the first session of a newly elected parliament. It said the election process began with 16 candidates and that Amidi led the first round with 208 votes, while the second-place candidate, Muthanna Amin Nader from the Kurdistan Islamic Union bloc, received 17 votes.

Because no candidate cleared the two-thirds threshold in the first round, lawmakers proceeded to a second round, with Amidi securing 227 votes to Nader’s 15, the AP said. The constitutional framework then gives the president 15 days to assign the nominee of Iraq’s largest parliamentary bloc to form a government and assume the role of prime minister.

The AP said the dominant bloc, the Shiite Coordination Framework—a coalition of Iran-allied parties—announced in January that it would nominate former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It said the nomination faces opposition from Washington, and noted that caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had been al-Maliki’s main rival for the nomination before stepping aside to clear the path.

Amidi is a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s political bureau, the AP reported, and he previously served as an aide to two other presidents, Jalal Talabani and Fouad Massoum. The AP also said Amidi was born in Dohuk province in northern Iraq and works as an engineer.

As the next phase begins, the Shiite Coordination Framework will be tested by whether the president proceeds with the al-Maliki nomination or chooses another candidate, the AP said—an outcome that hinges on the largest bloc’s internal decisions after the presidential vote.