# Nizar Amedi elected president of Iraq after second-round parliamentary vote
*By IO Digest Desk*
Nizar Amedi has been elected president of Iraq after winning the second round of voting in parliament on April 11, 2026, according to Kurdistan24. The PUK candidate secured 227 votes, defeating Muthanna Amin of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, who received 15 votes in the runoff.
The result ended a two-round parliamentary contest and delivered a clear majority for Amedi, whose full name is Nizar Mohammed Saeed Mohammed. The report says he entered the presidency after decades in Kurdish and Iraqi political circles, including senior roles in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and service in government and advisory positions.
Amedi's election matters not just because of the vote count but because of the political signal it sends. In a country where presidency, parliament and the premiership are often closely linked to broader coalition bargaining, a decisive result can indicate a moment of relative alignment even amid continuing disputes.
In his first address after the vote, Amedi emphasized sovereignty, unity and what he called an Iraq First approach. He condemned violations and attacks on Iraqi territory and said safeguarding national sovereignty would be among his top priorities. That language places territorial integrity at the center of his early message and suggests that security and institutional coordination will be major themes of his tenure.
The report also says Amedi stressed cooperation among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. That is a conventional promise in any inauguration speech, but it also reflects a real challenge in Iraq: state institutions often need coordination across competing political blocs and regional interests.
The article identifies Amedi as a long-standing member of the PUK political bureau who worked in the office of Jalal Talabani from 1993 to 2003 and later served as a senior adviser to three Iraqi presidents from 2005 to 2022. He was also minister of environment from 2022 to 2024. Those positions help explain why the PUK was able to field a candidate with national standing and parliamentary credibility.
The political backdrop was not entirely smooth. The Kurdistan Democratic Party parliamentary faction criticized the process before the session and boycotted the vote, arguing that the presidency and the prime ministership should be treated as part of a national package decided by consensus. That boycott did not prevent Amedi's victory, but it does show the limits of agreement inside Iraq's Kurdish and national politics.
The verified story, then, is a clear parliamentary outcome with a political message attached. Amedi won decisively, set out sovereignty-first priorities and entered office amid continuing debate over how Iraq's top posts should be negotiated. What happens next will depend on whether his call for coordination can translate into practical governance.
