ERBIL, Iraq, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has won the most seats in the Sept. 30 parliamentary elections of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
Around midnight Saturday, the Kurdish Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission (IHERC) announced the final results, which showed the KDP, headed by Masoud Barzani, took the lead with 45 seats of the 111-seat regional parliament.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by former Iraqi President Fuad Masoum, came second with 21 seats, the results showed.
The Change Movement (Gorran) came in the third place with 12 seats, and the New Generation Movement seized eight seats.
The Islamic Group got seven seats and the Toward Reform won five, and Sardam and Azadi (Communist Party) won one seat each.
The 11 remaining seats were won by minority groups under the quota system, as the Turkoman gained five seats, the Christians five and the Armenians one, according to the figures.
On Sept. 30, about 3 million eligible voters cast their ballots over more than 700 candidates within 29 parties and coalitions vying for seats in the regional legislature.
Under the quota system, Kurdish political parties will take 100 seats, and minority groups share the remaining 11 ones.
The Kurdish parliamentary elections came more than four months after the Iraqi national elections on May 12.
The elections are the fifth of their kind since the Iraqi Kurds established the autonomous region in 1991.
