IRBIL - Iraqi Kurds are voting Saturday in a presidential and parliamentary election, just as the autonomous region is locked in a bitter feud with Baghdad over land and oil.

There are about 2.5 million people eligible to vote in Iraqi Kurdistan, a region in northern Iraq that includes three provinces - Irbil, Dahuk and Sulaimaniyah.

After the polls close Saturday evening, the ballots will to flown to Baghdad where they will be tallied.

Results are expected within two to three days, but the region’s electoral chief (Faraj al-Haidari) has warned that technical problems could delay official results for weeks.

Last month, the Kurdish region started pumping oil to the international market for the first time, but the national Oil Ministry in Baghdad says any contracts between the Kurds and private oil companies are illegal.

Ethnic tension between Kurds and Arabs, particularly in Kirkuk, is considered a threat to Iraqi stability, and is a major issue for many voters.

The incumbent President Massoud Barzani is expected to win re-election.

The two majors parties - Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - are expected to win most of the 111 parliament seats in Saturday’s vote.

Ten parliamentary seats are reserved for two of Kurdistan’s minority population groups, Christians and Turkmen.

Source:  VOA News