ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Latif Rashid was voted in as Iraq’s new president on Thursday, setting in motion the country’s government formation process a year since parliamentary elections were held.
The Iraqi parliament finally reached the legal quorum needed to hold a session to elect the country’s next president, having previously failed to do so on three different occasions since the election of the legislative body over a year ago.
Rashid, Iraq’s former water resources minister and former Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official, bested former President Barham Salih in a lengthy vote, after 162 MPs of the legislature casted their ballots in his favor as opposed to Salih’s 99.
Born in Sulaimani in 1944, Rashid began his political career in the 1960’s when he became an active member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). He had an essential role in the PUK since its formation in 1975.
Rashid was appointed Iraq’s minister of water resources in 2003, and held the position up to December 2010. Since 2010, he has been the senior advisor to the president of Iraq.
Kurdish and Iraqi leaders, including Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi, former President Salih, Kurdistan Region's PM Masrour Barzani, and the Region's President Nechirvan Barzani extended their congratulations to the new Iraqi president following his election.
The elected president later tasked Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, the Coordination Framework’s candidate, with the Iraqi prime minister position and in charge of forming the council of ministers. Sudani will have 30 days to name all ministers of his cabinet, or risk losing the position if he fails to do so.
Born in 1970, Sudani entered politics from a young age, especially after the killing of his father by Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime in 1980 due to his affiliation with the Islamic Dawa Party. He participated in the 1991 anti-regime Shaaban uprising for three years.
Sudani has filled a number of high-rank positions since 2003, including being the governor of Maysan province from 2009 to 2010, the minister of human rights from 2010 to 2014, acting minister of agriculture in 2013, and acting minister of finance in 2014, and his latest ministerial position was in the ministry of labor and social affairs from 2014 to 2018.
Nation-wide anti-corruption protests in Iraq resulted in early parliamentary elections in October 2021. Nonetheless, the elected legislature was unable to form the country’s next government for over a year due to continued disagreements between the political blocs over the mechanisms of its formation.
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