Iraqi Kurds cast ballots in uncertain parliamentary vote

IRBIL, Iraq — Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region held its long-delayed parliamentary elections Sunday, a year after a vote for independence sparked a backlash from Baghdad, leaving Kurdish leaders deeply divided.

More than 700 candidates are vying 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.

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.

Iraq’s Kurds established a regional government in 1992 after the U.S. enforced a no-fly zone across the north following the Gulf War. After the 2003 U.s.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, the Kurds secured constitutional recognition of their autonomy and gained more power.

The Kurds took control of Kirkuk and other disputed territories in the summer of 2014 as the Islamic State group rampaged across northern and central Iraq. But after last September’s referendum, in which more than 90 percent voted for independence, federal forces retook Kirkuk and other areas with only scattered fighting. The loss of the disputed territories was a major blow for Barzani, who had championed the referendum.

The Iraqi government rejected the referendum, as did Iraq’s neighbors and the international community, including the United States. The Baghdad government, as well as neighboring Turkey and Iran, shut down the Kurdish region’s airports and border crossings in response to the referendum. They were reopened after a federal court dismissed the referendum.