Iraq parliament elects new interim president

Iraq’s newly-elected parliament chose Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as its new interim president today, reaching out to the nation’s long-repressed Kurdish minority and taking one of the final steps toward forming Iraq’s first democratically elected government in 50 years.

In a largely symbolic, secret election, politicians elected Talabani, with Shiite Adel Abdul-Mahdi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, as his vice presidents.

The three had been agreed upon in negotiations held during the past weeks, and no other candidates were proposed.

Politicians cast 221 ballots in favour of Talabani and his two vice presidents. Thirty other ballots were left blank in an apparent protest against the three candidates.

The announcement drew applause, and people crowded around Talabani to congratulate him.

Ousted members of the country’s former regime – including toppled leader Saddam Hussein – were to be allowed to watch the event on televisions in their prison cell, although it wasn’t clear if they had a live feed.

Human Rights Minister Bakhtiyar Amin said that politicians had asked that Saddam and other jailed members of his former government be shown the process.

“There will be televisions there, and they will be seeing it today,” he said.

US military officials declined to comment. Saddam, captured in December 2003, has been in custody with several of his top henchmen at a US-guarded detention facility.