Polls close after parliamentary elections in Iraq's Kurdish region
128 views · Published 5 October 2018 · 1:31 · Indexed 30 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(30 Sep 2018) Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region held its long-delayed parliamentary elections on Sunday, a year after a vote for independence sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, leaving Kurdish leaders deeply divided. More than 700 candidates vyed for 111 seats in the elections, in which nearly 3.5 million Kurds were eligible to vote. Eleven seats are reserved for religious and ethnic minorities: five for Christians, five for Turkmen candidates and one for the Armenian community. It's unclear how much change the elections could bring or whether the vote would only cement Iraqi Kurdish divisions further. Polls closed in the early evening and unofficial results were expected to start coming in later on Sunday. The last parliamentary elections in Iraq's Kurdish region were in 2013, but the assembly stopped meeting in 2015 amid internal political tensions and the war against the Islamic State group. The political deadlock also delayed new elections, which were originally planned for last November. Iraqi Kurdish politics have long been dominated by Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is riven by infighting. Those two factions are expected to win the lion's share of the vote. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/31f179fd15c7c6aba3d09912bc18fd2b
