Iraqi Kurds vote to elect new parliament
Iraqi Kurdistan held its parliamentary elections one year after its failed bid for independence, but low voter turnout and claims of voter fraud are tainting the results.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi Kurds voted Sept. 30 in parliamentary elections that witnessed low voter turnout, fraud and early threats to reject the results — which may push the land-locked region further into uncertainty after last year’s failed bid for independence from Baghdad.
The vote is the first since the war against the Islamic State (IS), economic hardship and political infighting that followed the doomed referendum, which provoked a firm response from Baghdad.
The Kurdistan Regional Government's Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission (IHERC), which supervises elections, reported that 29 political blocs and 773 candidates, including 241 women, are competing for the 111-seat house. Of the total population, 3,085,461 Iraqi Kurds were deemed eligible to vote in the general polls to elect members of parliament for their regions.
The results will be announced 72 hours after the polls close, but a significant change in the political map of the region is not expected — meaning that the two main parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), will remain dominant.
