On July 11, 2019 the Members of the Kurdistan Parliament elected Dr. Rewas Faiq as the new Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament. The position of Speaker had remained vacant because Mrs. Vala Fareed, the previous Speaker, had to relinquish her position to join the 9th KRG Cabinet as a Region minister.
Dr. Rewas Faiq is the second woman to hold the position of Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament after Mrs. Vala Fareed, the first in the whole history of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Per Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, the election of the Speaker is by secret ballot. Dr. Faiq was elected with 72 votes, out of a legislature of 111 Members of Parliament. Out of the 100 Members of Parliament at the sitting, 5 abstained, and 9 ballot papers were blank.
Read here Dr. Faiq’s acceptance speech.