Voting is due to continue until 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) in the region, where regional president Massud Barzani is expected to be re-elected to his post, and the two main parties are likely to win the lion's share of parliamentary seats.

Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have dominated politics in the region for decades, but smaller parties have attempted to break the status quo by campaigning against corruption and for widespread reforms.

More than 2.5 million Kurds are eligible to cast their ballots.

Saturday's main vote -- more than 100,000 Kurdish members of Iraq's armed forces voted on Thursday, along with police, prisoners and the sick -- is being held six months after the rest of Iraq held provincial elections.

Final results are not expected for several days, however, as ballots must be collected in the regional capital Arbil before being transported to Baghdad for the count.