Voting started Saturday in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan to elect a new parliament, the first elections in four years.
Voting started Saturday in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan to elect a new parliament, the first elections in four years.
The election comes as the turmoil roiling the Middl
e East has raised renewed questions about the political future of the Kurdish nation as a whole.
About 2.8 million Kurds are eligible to vote across the three-province region of northern Iraq, and queues were already forming when polls opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT).
Polls close at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), with preliminary results due in the coming days.
The campaign centered on calls for more to be done to fight corruption and improve the delivery of basic services, as well as on how the energy-rich region's oil revenues should be spent.
The election, the first since July 2009, sees three main parties jostling for position in the 111-seat Kurdish parliament, with implications beyond Iraq.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani is widely expected to win the largest number of seats, although it is unlikely to obtain a majority on its own.
"Today is a historic day in the history of the Kurdish people," said regional prime minister Nechirvan Barzani, the president's nephew.
"We have taken another step in the region to consolidate democracy."
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is in government with the KDP, however faces a challenge from the Goran movement in its Sulaimaniyah province stronghold.
The challenge has been heightened by leadership questions as the party's veteran leader, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, recuperates in Germany from a stroke.
