Iraq's Kurds vote amid rows, regional tensions

Iraq's Kurds voted today in their first election in four years as their autonomous region grapples with disputes with Baghdad and as fellow Kurds fight bloody battles in neighbouring Syria.
The election for the region's parliament comes as turmoil roiling the Middle East has raised renewed questions about the political future of the Kurdish nation as a whole.
The Kurds are spread across a number of neighbouring states, where they have long faced hostile governments but have found increasing space to pursue their aspirations to run their own affairs.
Election officials began tabulating votes after polling stations closed at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), with observers and diplomats reporting that the vote passed off largely without incident.

Iraq's election commission was expected to announce turnout figures at a news conference later today, with preliminary results due in the coming days.
About 2.8 million Kurds were eligible to vote across the three-province region of northern Iraq.

Some voters wore the traditional garb that is often reserved for special occasions, while many women wore full-length black abaya robes.
The campaign centred on calls for more to be done to fight corruption and improve the delivery of basic services, as well as on how the energy-rich region's oil revenues should be spent.
"The main problem... Is economic," said Mohammed Saleh.

"The cost of living now is high, and the people need more money. The new parliament needs to organise a programme for solving this."
The 54-year-old architect added: "For 20 years, our government has been trying to make services good for the cities, towns and even for the villages.
"But our country was ruined, it was destroyed -- it needs reconstruction," he said, referring to the years of conflict the region suffered under the rule of now-executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The election, the first since July 2009, sees three main parties jostling for position in the 111-seat Kurdish parliament, with implications beyond Iraq.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani is widely expected to win the largest number of seats, although it is unlikely to obtain a majority on its own.