URGENT / Kamal Karkouki elected as speaker of Kurdistan’s parliament

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The Kurdish List’s nominee, Kamal Karkouki, was elected as the speaker of the Kurdistan ‘s parliament and Arslan Bayez as deputy speaker, while Frest Ahmad Abdullah was elected as the secretary of the parliament. Todays session was held at the parliament on Thursday morning, during which the new members took the legal oath. On Aug. 7, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced the final results of the parliamentary elections in the Kurdish region. The Kurdistan List, formed by the two main Kurdish parties – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s President Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), occupied a majority of 59 seats in the Parliament. Parliamentary and presidential elections for the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region were held on July 25 with the participation of 24 lists and five runners for the top post in Kurdistan . The parliamentary election was the third and the presidential election was the first to be held in the region. SH (P)/SR 1