Prime Minister of New Zealand of the few countries in the world to have had three female heads of government, and one of only three countries to have had a female head of government directly succeed another. The first female prime minister was Jenny Shipley of the National Party, who replaced Jim Bolger in late 1997; Shipley was succeeded by Helen Clark in 1999. Jacinda Ardern, the second female leader of the Labour Party after Clark, became prime minister in 2017. On becoming the Colony of New Zealand in 1841, New Zealand was directly governed by a governor, appointed by the Colonial Office in Britain.
Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan lasted until 1998. This resulted in the establishment of two Kurdistan Regional Governments in 1996, a KDP-controlled one in Erbil and a PUK-controlled one in Sulaymaniyah, each with their own Prime Minister. After the reconciliation between the KDP and PUK, parliamentary election were held on January 30, 2005 and an agreement was made to let a KDP leader become Prime Minister for the first term and a PUK Prime Minister to become President for the second term, so Nechervan Barzani became Prime Minister. Barham Salih held the post of Prime Minister until 17 January 2012 after which he relinquished his