The Iraqi parliament elected Nizar Amidi as President of the Republic of Iraq on April 11, thus completing the most complex step in the marathon of forming a new government, and opening a new phase that is no less complicated—selecting a new prime minister for a four-year term.
The process of electing the president in Iraq represents the most difficult stage because it requires the attendance of two-thirds of the 329 members of parliament, which is very difficult to achieve without consensus among the political forces represented in parliament.
According to the Iraqi constitution, the new president must request that the largest parliamentary bloc (the Shiite Coordination Framework) nominate a candidate for prime minister within no more than 15 days from the date of the president’s election.
A member of the Coordination Framework told Alhurra that the chances of the current candidate, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, are almost nonexistent following a veto by U.S. President Donald Trump and declining support for Maliki within the Coordination Framework.
“More than two-thirds of the Framework’s members are opposed to Maliki’s nomination, and he has no real chance of continuing his candidacy,” the member added, noting that the chances of current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani securing a second term are increasing, despite reservations from some factions within the Coordination Framework, including Maliki himself.
The member, who requested anonymity, indicated that meetings within the Coordination Framework will continue until the constitutional deadline expires in order to reach internal consensus on a new candidate.
Efforts to nominate Maliki for a third term became more complicated after U.S. President Donald Trump warned in February that Washington would not provide any assistance to Iraq if Maliki returned to power. Washington also sent several messages to Iraqi officials and political leaders threatening to impose sanctions on Baghdad if Maliki’s nomination proceeded.
The crisis over Maliki’s nomination led to a political deadlock in Iraq, delaying the parliamentary session that was scheduled for the end of January to elect a new president, as it has been customary in Iraq for the election of the president and the nomination of the largest bloc’s candidate for prime minister to be part of a single deal.
The election of Amidi as the country’s new president was not without disputes.
Amidi is the candidate of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which has held the presidency since 2005, and is led by Bafel Talabani, the son of former Iraqi president and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani.
The presidency is one of the main points of contention between the PUK and its traditional rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Masoud Barzani, which puts forward its own candidate each time but fails to secure the necessary votes in parliament.
Immediately after Amidi’s election, the Kurdistan Democratic Party issued a statement saying: “We will not deal with the person who was chosen as president of the republic.”
Shwan Mohammed Taha, a senior figure in the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told Alhurra: “Our problem is not with Amidi as a person. Our problem is with the way the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan handled matters, which has divided the Kurdish house.”
Taha added: “We wanted to reach an agreement in Erbil and go to Baghdad united, but the Patriotic Union did not want that. It could have secured the position with the approval of all Kurds, but it does not want a unified Kurdish house.”
However, Rezan Sheikh Dler, a former member of parliament from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told Alhurra: “It is the disagreements within the Kurdistan Region that affected the Kurdish scene in Baghdad, not the other way around.”
“The Kurdistan Democratic Party boasted about its number of seats compared to the Patriotic Union and sought to monopolize everything. They behave like kings of the region and do not respect any other party, so the Union sought allies in Baghdad,” Dler said.
Amidi’s election came amid unprecedented complexity within the Kurdish political landscape, where there is no longer a dominant leader or a single authority, but rather parties of relatively equal weight. The Kurdistan Democratic Party holds around 30 seats in the federal parliament, compared to 17 to 18 seats for the Patriotic Union, but the latter has managed to compensate for this gap by building effective alliances in Baghdad, some with Iran-aligned forces.
The Patriotic Union, whose main stronghold is the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, is also accused of being Iran’s arm in the region. Sulaymaniyah shares a land border with Iran.
Sessions to elect the president were postponed twice due to Kurdish-Kurdish disagreements between the Patriotic Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in addition to disputes within the Shiite political camp over the prime ministerial candidate.
The session to elect Amidi was held with the attendance of 252 lawmakers out of 329, and featured a main contest between him, Fuad Hussein (the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s candidate), and Muthanna Amin from the Kurdistan Islamic Union.
In the first round, Amidi received 208 votes, falling short of the required two-thirds majority, prompting a second round in which he won 227 votes out of 249, securing a landslide majority. He then took the constitutional oath and officially began his term.
Amidi received broad support from various political forces, except for members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the State of Law Coalition led by Nouri al-Maliki, who boycotted the session.
The State of Law Coalition’s absence from the parliamentary session and its refusal to vote for Amidi was due to an agreement between Barzani and Maliki to support the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s candidate, Fuad Hussein.
The biggest challenge facing the new president will be assigning the nominee of the largest bloc within 15 days. Amidi is awaiting the position of the Coordination Framework forces, which include 12 major factions.
Who is Amidi?
Nizar Amidi was born on February 6, 1968, in the town of Amedi in Duhok province. He was nicknamed “Amidi” after his hometown. The province is considered one of the strongholds of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, but his political career took a different path when he joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan early on.
He received his education in the Kurdistan Region before moving to Mosul, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Mosul in 1993. After graduation, he worked as a physics teacher between 1993 and 1994, during a period of major transformations in the Kurdistan Region following the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein’s regime in southern Iraq.
Amidi began his political activity in the early 1990s within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, where he worked in the office of Secretary-General Jalal Talabani between 1993 and 2003.
He later held senior organizational positions, including membership in the Political Bureau since 2023, and managed the party’s office in Baghdad, becoming a key link between Sulaymaniyah and political forces in the capital.
Experience at the Presidential Palace: Two decades at the center of decision-making
Amidi spent nearly 20 years within the Presidential Office in advanced advisory roles, working alongside four presidents.
He began his career in the presidential palace with Jalal Talabani between 2003 and 2005, then served as head of the president’s office during Talabani’s presidency from 2005 to 2014 and later continued as a senior advisor to former presidents Fuad Masum and Barham Salih, up to the early period of his predecessor Abdul Latif Rashid.
According to a senior presidential official who spoke to Alhurra, Amidi enters the palace this time with a different mindset, focused on activating the role of the presidency. The official, a member of his core team, said: “The new Iraqi president intends to form specialized teams to follow up on government and legislative files, in order to avoid the tensions that characterized the relationship between the presidency and the government in the previous phase.”
Ala Talabani, a member of the Iraqi parliament between 2006 and 2021 and a relative of former president Jalal Talabani, said: “Amidi worked closely with Talabani for many years. He is a loyal student of Talabani’s school and knows many of the secrets, backstage dynamics, and important events.”
However, she added to Alhurra: “His arrival at the Peace Palace will deepen the gap between the two main parties in the region,” referring to the Patriotic Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
In January 2022, Amidi assumed the position of Minister of Environment in al-Sudani’s government, before resigning in October 2024 to focus on political work in Baghdad, in a step that paved the way for his presidential candidacy.
According to a member of his team who spoke to Alhurra, Amidi will also focus on the energy and environment portfolios. He added: “He is interested in stopping the wasteful flaring of Iraqi gas.”
Iraq is considered one of the countries that flares the most natural gas, according to World Bank estimates.
The President of the Republic of Iraq holds a significant sovereign and ceremonial position under the 2005 constitution. His sovereign duties include representing the state in international forums, accrediting ambassadors, and playing a central role in completing the institutional structure of the executive authority by assigning the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc to form the Council of Ministers within constitutionally defined timelines.
From a legal and procedural perspective, the president ratifies laws passed by parliament and issues presidential decrees regulating state affairs. He also exercises the powers of commander-in-chief of the armed forces for ceremonial and high-level leadership purposes. He has the authority to grant medals and honors, ratify death sentences issued by competent courts, and issue special pardons based on a recommendation from the prime minister.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
Alhurra
Mustafa Saadoon
Mustafa Saadoon is an Iraqi journalist who has worked for several international and Arab media organizations. He covers politics and human rights.
