BBC Online :
There is heavy security across Iraq as the country votes in its first parliamentary elections since US troops withdrew three years ago.
Polling began at 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT) and closes at 18:00.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is hoping to win a third term in office amid a growing insurgency in the west of the country.
Iraq is experiencing its worst unrest since 2008, with 160 people killed in the past week alone.
Some 22 million Iraqis are registered to vote, with almost 50,000 polling stations open across the country.
Unlike in the rest of Iraq, the election campaign here has not been badly marred by violence. The Kurdish region has been enjoying an unprecedented degree of self rule, stability and economic prosperity since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
But it is not all rosy. Kurdish parties failed to form a government after last September’s regional elections, from which no single party emerged as an outright winner.
For the Kurds these national elections will be another chance to assert their role in the politics of Iraq. As two voters in traditional Kurdish clothing cast their ballots early in the morning, they told me they were voting for a democratic and federal Iraq. For them that means significant representation for the Kurds in the central government and recognition for the distinct Kurdish identity.
