Photo Credit: The Baghdad Post/File

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SULAIMANI — Barham Salih of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has been elected as the new President of Iraq after a second round of voting on Tuesday (October 2).

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) attempted to withdraw their candidate Faud Hussein, who had been Salih's nearest rival in the first round, but the request was denied by the Speaker of the Council of Representatives, Mohammed al-Halbusi.

In the end, Salih won 219 votes to Hussein's 22. There were 31 blank or otherwise invalid ballots.

A total of 272 MPs voted in the second round, a steep drop-off from the 303 who participated in the first round.

In the first round, Salih received 165 votes to Hussein's 90, while independent candidate Abdulwahid won 18 votes.