Iraqi Kurds voted on Saturday in polls expected to keep President Masoud Barzani in power in Kurdistan.
Ballots were provisionally counted after voting was extended for one hour in the largely autonomous region. A final tally is expected to take at least 2-3 days.

Barzani looked certain to defeat five competitors, the first time the relatively peaceful northern enclave has elected a president directly.
Turnout was high, at 78.5 percent across Kurdistan, the Electoral Commission said.

The region’s powerful ruling parties — Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd — are running jointly against 23 alliances of smaller parties.

During the campaign, Kurdish leaders have churned out fiery rhetoric on claims to territories they contest with Baghdad’s government.

The row over oil-producing Kirkuk and other disputed areas is seen as a major threat to Iraq’s long-term stability as sectarian violence fades. But many Kurds support Barzani’s approach against Baghdad, from where Saddam Hussein launched deadly attacks against Kurds in the 1980s.

The Kurd-Arab row has held up critical energy laws in the national parliament and complicates government efforts to secure investment in the oil sector, the anchor of Iraq’s economy.

Speaking in Washington, Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the vote would “have a big role in solving problems and differences we inherited from the past regime.”