The High Election Commission in the Kurdish region has established some 5,933 voting stations in the cities of Erbil, Sulaimani, Dohuk and Halabja for the polls.

Around 3.8 million voters are eligible to cast ballot in the vote to elect 111 members of parliament.

Voting will begin at 08.00 a.m. local time and end at 18.00 p.m.

According to Anadolu news agency electronic vote counting, which has caused uproar during Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary election, will not be used in the Kurdish polls. Votes, instead, will be counted manually.

Leading parties vying for seats in the parliamentary polls include Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Gorran Movement, Kurdistan Islamic Party (Yekgirtu), Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), Kurdistan Islamic Movement (Bizutnava) and the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF).

The parliamentary polls are held every four years in the region.

It had been scheduled to be held in 2017, but the vote was postponed for a year as a result of political and economic crises in the region.

The parliamentary vote in the Kurdish region is the first since the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group by Iraqi forces and a U.S.-led coalition last year.

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