Nechirvan Barzani elected president of Iraqi Kurdistan

The Iraqi Kurdish parliament on Tuesday elected Nechirvan Barzani, the nephew and son-in-law of veteran leader Masoud Barzani, as president of the autonomous region.

The deputy leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party won 68 votes from the 81 members present in the 111-seat chamber.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of late Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, bitter rival of the powerful Barzani clan, had called for a boycott of the vote, AFP reported.

Nechirvan Barzani is the second person to hold the office of president, occupied by his uncle from its creation in 2005 until late 2017, when he quit following an independence referendum opposed by Baghdad.