Baghdad, July 25: Polls have opened in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region to elect a president and a parliament as regional president Massud Barzani is expected to be re-elected to his post.
The presidential and legislative elections began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) in the largely autonomous northern region and are due to continue until 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), after which ballots will be flown to Baghdad for tallying. The official count is expected to take 2-3 days if no one challenges it.
Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the region’s most powerful parties, will run for seats on a joint list against 23 alliances of myriad smaller parties.
The two main parties are likely to win the lion’s share of parliamentary seats.
—-Agencies