The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the largest party in the outgoing parliament, has received more than 800,000 votes so far in the preliminary count after Sunday's election, the commission said.

The region's other historic party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), received more than 400,000 ballots, it added.

Iraqi Kurdistan, in Iraq's north, presents itself as a relative oasis of stability in the turbulent Middle East, attracting foreign investors due to its close ties with the United States and Europe.

However, activists and opposition figures contend that the region, autonomous since 1991, faces the same issues affecting Iraq as a whole: corruption, political repression and cronyism among those in power.

Voters had expressed concern over economic struggles and disenchantment with the political elite.

The electoral commission said that an opposition party, New Generation, came third with more than 200,000 votes.

Neither the KDP nor the electoral commission revealed the number of deputies the party obtained in the 100-seat parliament.

The final results of the election are to be announced at an unspecified later date.

Of the region's six million inhabitants, 2.9 million were eligible to vote.

Turnout was 72 percent, Omar Ahmed, an electoral commission official, told a press conference.

That compares with 59 percent in the last Kurdistan elections in 2018.

The two dominant parties are each controlled by a powerful Kurdish family -- the KDP by the Barzanis and the PUK by the Talabanis.