Iraqi Kurds to elect new parliament on Sunday

Voters in Iraq’s Kurdistan will elect a new parliament on Sunday, with the autonomous region mired in an economic crisis a year after an independence referendum that backfired disastrously.

Despite deep discontent and divisions, there appears to be little prospect of a major political shakeup as the region grapples with the fallout from the controversial poll last September.

“The Kurds lost so much with that referendum,” said shop owner Omar Karim, 62, in the region’s second city Sulaimaniyah.

“This election will not give us back what we lost. The Kurdish leaders are not learning from their errors.”

The vote last year saw more than 92 per cent of Kurds back secession, but the federal government rejected that as “illegal”.

Baghdad then imposed economic penalties and sent federal troops to push Kurdish forces out of oil fields vital for the autonomous region’s economy.

Regional president Massoud Barzani, who had dominated the region since the ouster of Saddam Hussain and was the driving force behind the plebiscite, stepped down in November.

Despite the upheaval, Sunday’s election sees the parties that have long held sway set to come out on top yet again.

Barzani’s still-dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) will face established rivals, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Goran (Change) party.

There is only one new political party competing - the New Generation movement, founded in 2018 to channel public anger at the region’s elite.

Ire at the political establishment has been fanned by economic woes since the referendum.