Iraqi Kurds voted on Saturday for a new regional president and assembly. Turnout was nearly 80 percent and there were long queues outside polling stations, which stayed open one hour and in some cases two hours extra.

It is widely expected that incumbent regional President Masoud Barzani will be returned to power. It is the first time the autonomous region's 2.5 million registered voters have chosen their president directly.

 
Mr Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the region's two most powerful parties, are likely to win a majority in the regional assembly.

The Kurdish part of Iraq is made up of three provinces which enjoy wide-ranging autonomy. The votes will be counted in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and the official results of the poll are expected after the weekend.

photo: Masoud Barzani (flickr.com/photos/kurdistan4all)