Kurdish president, lawmakers to be sworn in Thur.

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The president-elect of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Massoud al-Barazani, and members of its new parliament will be sworn in during the council’s first session this Thursday, an informed source said on Tuesday. “A new leadership of the Parliament will be elected during the session,” the chairman of the legal committee in the Kurdish Parliament, Shirwan al-Haidari, told Iraqi News. Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be present, he added. 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 Barazani’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. SS (P) 1