He stated that the elections are held at a time that the region’s politics has changed after the independence referendum last September and now voters can choose their real candidates.

Dabbagh further stated that the party which wins the majority of the votes would decide the future of the region.

Voters are voting in 5,941 polling stations in the province of Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok and Halabja, the Kurdistan Region’s Independent High Election and Referendum Commission (IHERC) said.

As many as 773 candidates compete to win 111 seats of parliament from 29 entities.

According to IHERC, polling started at 8 am Sunday and will go until 6 pm. The counting of votes usually begins soon after polling is concluded, NRT reported.

There are 1,036,419 eligible voters in Erbil province, 1,134,760 in Sulaimani province, 677,797 in Duhok province and 66,016 in Halabja province.

Reporter’s code: 50101