PREVIEW: Iraqi Kurds head to polls on Saturday

Jul 24, 2009, 9:30 GMT

Arbil, Iraq - Iraqi Kurds will head to polls early on Saturday to elect a president for the semi-autonomous region from a pool of five candidates, including current President Massoud Barzani, the incumbent since 2005.

Campaigning for votes in the semi-autonomous region ended Wednesday. Earlier in the week, around 119,407 voters from the country's security forces, along with prisoners and hospital patients, took part in a special early election for Iraqi Kurdistan's presidency and parliament.

Observers believe that Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party, which is running together with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Democratic Union of Kurdistan in a joint list, will be re-elected.

However, the opposition are expected to score some success in the parliamentary elections and win a large number of seats.

The first parliamentary elections in Kurdistan took place in May 1992 after the region separated from the rest of Iraq after rising up against Saddam Hussein's regime. In 2005, parliamentary elections were held in conjunction with elections throughout Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said, during a visit to Washington this week, that the divisions between Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq remains one of the most dangerous challenges facing the war-torn country.

'I am confident that we will be able to resolve all these issues, not only with the Kurdistan region, but also with other provinces,' al-Maliki said.

Saturday's main vote is being held six months after the rest of Iraq held provincial elections and less than a month after US troops withdrew from Iraq's cities and town on June 30.

The region's 2.5 million eligible voters will choose from among 507 candidates, in 24 political lists, competing for 111 seats in the Parliament. At least 30 per cent of each political bloc's representation is required to go to female candidates.

There will be around 45,000 observers, including 16,520 from non- governmental organizations and 350 from the Arab League, the United States and other European countries.

Votes will be collected from across the country, and transferred to Arbil, some 350 kilometres north of Baghdad, for vote counting. Official results are expected to be announced one week after the elections.