Iraqi Kurds voted on Sunday for a new parliament in their autonomous region, which is mired in an economic crisis a year after an independence referendum that infuriated Baghdad. Almost 3.1 million voters were eligible to cast ballots across three provinces in the northern region, where 673 candidates from 29 political movements contested seats in the 111-member parliament.
Polling closed as scheduled at 1500 GMT and the results are expected within 72 hours. The vote passed off with only minor incidents such as gunmen trying to vote without the necessary papers. The electoral commission gave no overall figures but early indications pointed to a modest turnout following a campaign that aroused little enthusiasm.
The vote in Kurdistan came as Iraq struggles to form a new government after a nationwide parliamentary poll held in May. On Monday, the federal parliament in Baghdad is due to elect the president of the country. Iraq's Kurds have been a key US partner in the war against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group and had hoped their role would boost international support for statehood.
But a massive "yes" vote in the September 2017 referendum for independence, deemed illegal by Iraq's federal government, backfired on the oil-rich autonomous Kurdish region.