The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has won the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) parliamentary elections held on Sept. 30, the election commission confirmed yesterday.
The official results show that the ruling KDP has retained its position in the 111-seat parliament by winning 45 seats.
Over 3 million registered voters went to the polls on the Sept. 30 general elections, participated by 29 parties and coalitions. The voter turnout was put at 57 percent.
However, publication of the final results was postponed for three weeks after the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission said it was inspecting some 1,045 complaints on electoral violations. Former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), won 21 seats to become the main opposition.
Rivalries between the KDP and PUK, which have been respectively dominated by the Barzani and Talabani families, have dominated the region's politics for decades since it gained a semi-autonomous status after the 1991 Gulf War.
The PUK has argued for better relations with the Iraqi government, while the KDP insists on independence for the region.
The opposition Gorran (Change) Movement came after the PUK with 12 seats and the Islamic Society Party (Komela) won seven seats while increasing its votes from the last election held in 2013.
The New Generation Movement (Naway Nwe), which entered the elections for the first time, won eight seats in the parliament.
The alliance formed between the Kurdistan Islamic Unity Party (Yekgirtu) and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement Party (Bizutnava) lost half of their votes from the last elections and secured only five seats in the parliament. Five commissioners in the KRG election commission approved the final results while four voted against; the commission consists of nine members and requires the approval of the five members to approve the election results.
