VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Iraq carried out the first parliamentary election in May this year. The result of the election was not immediately announced, because disputes occurred among the participants of the general election. This is the first election in Iraq, since ISIS, which controlled Iraq, could be defeated. Based on the result of this election, none of the parties won absolutely. Among 329 parliamentary seats, the clerical group Shia, Moqtada Al Sadr won 54 parliamentary seats, the Shiite group won 47 seats and the former Prime Minister Alliance Group, Haider al Abadi won 42 seats. The remaining was  won by other groups, including Kurdish parties. In accordance with conventions made since the United States intervened in the Iraqi issue, the President's position will be held by the Kurds, the Prime Minister by the Shiites and the Speaker of Parliament by the Sunnis. However, there is no agreement on who the Kurdish representative  becomes president. This has made two Kurdish parties: the Democratic Party of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Patriotic Union in parliament propose their respective candidates. Voting was conducted to determine who the President of Iraq is. As a result, Barham Salih, a veteran politician who was the Deputy Minister won 219 votes against 22 votes obtained by Fuad Hussein. Salih has 15 days to appoint a Prime Minister. During the next 2 weeks, Salih will move quickly by appointing a senior Shia politician, Adel Abdul Mahdi as the prime minister who has 30 days to form a government. Although no one is a majority winner in the parliament, and there may be challenges in forming a government. This is good news for the democratic festivity in Iraq. We do not expect any more splitting in Iraq because heavy duty awaits anyone who is the leader of Iraq. Rebuilding Iraq that was destroyed by war requires hard work by all parties.