Kurds have started voting in Kurdish parliamentary elections a year after the semi-autonomous region's failed bid for independence from Iraq, reports AL Jazeera.

Sunday's election will see hundreds of candidates vying for 111 seats in the regional parliament, including five seats allocated for Turkmen, five seats for Christians and one seat for Armenians.

More than 3.1 million people are eligible to vote in the semi-autonomous region.

With opposition parties weak, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) are likely to extend their almost three decades of sharing power.

But splits within the PUK present the possibility that KDP will take a dominant position in Kurdish politics, both in the regional capital Erbil and in the difficult formation of a federal government in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of the KDP cast his vote shortly after polls opened on Sunday morning.