Election campaigns start in Iraq's Kurdish region

ERBIL - Campaigning began in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan on Tuesday for parliamentary elections that Kurds hope will help end months of turmoil, a year after the region of six million made a failed bid to break away from the rest of the country.

The mood was unusually subdued across the region as the two dynastic parties which dominate Kurdish politics held rallies in their respective strongholds in an attempt to whip up support for the Sept. 30 vote.

Massoud Barzani, who last year stepped down from the region's presidency but maintains a respected position within his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), addressed a crowd in Erbil, the region's capital. Meanwhile, leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) gathered in Sulaimaniya province.

Iraqi Kurds will go to the polls to elect members of parliament for their region, which gained self-rule in 1991. Around 673 candidates from 29 political movements have thrown their hats into the ring hoping to secure one of 111-seats. The current parliament was elected in 2013.

Eleven of the seats are however reserved for religious and ethnic minorities and five will go to Turkmen candidates, five to Christians and one to the Armenian community.

The outgoing parliament is dominated by the KDP, as is the government.

The KDP currently holds 38 seats, while its traditional rival, the PUK, has 18. The main opposition Goran (Kurdish for "change") party has 24 seats in the outgoing parliament.

The start of campaigning had been delayed by a week, as Kurdish political parties debated delaying the regional vote over stalled negotiations in Baghdad.

A federal election in May, which included Kurdish provinces, was inconclusive and no government has yet been formed. Kurds have traditionally fielded a candidate for the federal presidency.

The election is not expected to change the political map in Kurdistan, according to experts, but could shed light on the divisions that emerged after the September 2017 independence referendum.

Kurds, who had enjoyed unprecedented autonomy for years, voted overwhelmingly for independence in the 2017 plebiscite, which was opposed by Baghdad and Iraq's neighbouring countries, Turkey, Iran and Western powers.

That vote -- championed by Barzani -- saw more than 92 percent of Kurds back secession but the federal government in Baghdad was incensed after long warning that any plebiscite would be "illegal".

The vote prompted military and economic retaliation from Baghdad, which took punitive measures to stamp out the region's independence aspirations, plunging the region into further economic and political turmoil.

Relations between Kurdish regional and central Iraqi authorities have since improved, but negotiations have stalled over oil exports and revenue-sharing.

"Had not it been for the KDP, Erbil would be ruled by others," Barzani told the rally in Erbil, in a reference to territories lost to federal Iraqi forces following the referendum. "To have a strong Kurdistan we need a strong KDP."

Opposition parties have expressed concern for months that turnout would be affected by fallout from May's national election which was marred by allegations of fraud in Kurdish areas. At least one opposition party was boycotting the election.

"The political climate is tense," said Kurdish political analyst Hokar Jeto.

"All indications are that there could be a low voter turnout similar to what happened in the Iraqi legislative polls."

The Kurdish election follows a parliamentary election across Iraq in May which saw a record low turnout of around 55 percent, with longtime political figures pushed out by voters seeking change in a country mired in conflict and corruption.