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President Jalal Talabani
Talabani holds a press conference after his election, April 6, 2005.
(Photo:
AP
)
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Iraq's two key Kurdish parties came in second place in the elections, giving strength to their goal of preserving Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq and ensuring a Kurdish voice in the formation of the new constitution. As the second-place winners, the group was also eyed as the deciding vote in choosing the next prime minister.
The Kurds quickly said that wanted Jalal Talabani to be interim president, a largely ceremonial position to which he was named April 6, 2005.
Talabani is a Sunni Kurd who joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party as a teenager and then founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two key Kurdish parties, in 1975. He helped lead the Kurdish fight in Iraq's north against former dictator Saddam Hussein.
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