The fallout continues to settle after Iraqi Kurdistan’s fraught independence referendum one year ago. On Sunday, voters in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq will choose the 111 members of the Kurdistan National Assembly, in the first election since the Kurdish independence referendum on 25 September 2017.

At stake, as usual, is the equilibrium between Iraqi Kurdistan’s dominant political parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). This time, however, the fate of the PUK also hangs in the balance, as it faces a challenge from opposition rivals, the Gorran and New Generation movements.

In this Q&A, our Iraq Senior Adviser Maria Fantappie surveys the political landscape ahead of the first regional legislative elections since the plebiscite.