HALABJA, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Democratic Party's (KDP) lawmaker Farhad Atrushi was elected on Tuesday as the Iraqi parliament's second deputy speaker, breaking a political deadlock over the position in the legislature.

Tensions erupted in the Iraqi parliament on Monday after the constitutional process took a major bump, with a sudden turn of events breaking the consensus among political forces in voting for the legislature’s second deputy speaker. 

Two successive rounds of voting saw the Kurdish opposition National Stance Movement’s (Halwest) Rebwar Karim take a shock lead over the KDP’s Shakhawan Abdullah, but failing to reach an absolute majority on both occasions, leading to a third round of voting on Tuesday. 

Iraqi state media later on Tuesday reported a breakthrough, with political forces agreeing to back the KDP’s Atrushi after Abdullah withdrew from the race, which ultimately saw him elected as the second deputy speaker of the legislature. 

Atrushi, born in 1976, has previously served as an Iraqi lawmaker in the 2010-2014 term, before becoming Governor of Duhok from 2014 until 2020. During the previous term, Atrushi was a member of the parliament's oil and gas committee.

The newly-elected second deputy speaker graduated from the International Islamic University of Malaysia, where he also lectured. Atrushi has also lectured Duhok university's faculty of law and politics, and has served as the vice chairman of Newroz University's faculty of law in Duhok.

The third round of voting saw 293 lawmakers cast their votes, with Atrushi an absolute majority and clinching the post.

By law, the Iraqi parliament must decide on the Speaker of Parliament and two deputies in the first meeting of the newly-elected lawmakers. 

The first session began on Monday, and saw Taqadum Party's Haibat al-Halbousi voted as the parliament's speaker, and the Sadiqoun bloc's Adnan Fayhan as his first deputy, prior to the ensuing stalemate over the second deputy post, which saw the session resume the next day for a third round of voting.

Within 30 days of Monday's session, the parliament must also elect a president for the country, which is reserved for Kurds, who would in turn name a prime minister-designate, selected by the largest parliamentary bloc, and task them with the formation of the Council of Ministers within fifteen days.

The prime minister-designate would need to be replaced by the president if the cabinet fails to be formed in a timely manner.