UPDATE - Nechirvan Barzani elected head of Iraq's Kurdish region

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAIL

By Aref Youssef

ERBIL, Iraq (AA) – Northern Iraq’s Kurdish regional parliament on Tuesday elected Nechirvan Barzani president of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

Barzani clinched the support of 68 out of 81 lawmakers who attended Tuesday’s parliamentary vote.

Notably, the vote was boycotted by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which holds 21 seats in the 111-member assembly, and the New Generation Movement, which controls 12 seats.

Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) represents the largest bloc in the regional parliament after winning 45 seats in legislative polls last September.

The KRG presidency has remained vacant since November 2017, when the mandate of then President Masoud Barzani (Nechirvan’s uncle) -- who had been in office since 2005 -- expired.

In the two years since, executive power has been shared by the prime minister and parliamentary speaker.

-Who is Nechirvan Barzani?

Born Sept. 21, 1966 in the Kurdish region’s Barzan region, Barzani moved to Iran with his family in 1975, where he studied at Tehran University’s political science department.

In 1989, he became a member of the KDP’s political bureau.

In 2006, he was appointed KRG prime minister, remaining in the position until 2009. The following year, he was made deputy chairman of the KDP.

In 2012, he was elected to a second term as prime minister.