As soon as Iraq’s election commission announced that the election campaign for the Kurdistan region of Iraq’s parliament would start on Aug. 28, the region’s cities of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dahuk wore  different and colorful suits.

The cities’ streets were covered in elegant and creative campaign banners and posters. In Sulaimaniyah, the dominant colors were green and blue. Green symbolizes the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, and blue represents the Movement for Change (MC), led by Nawshirwan Mustafa. In the region’s capital Erbil, the yellow color of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is led by Iraqi Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani, was predominant.

The current elections and campaigns are different from those that took place since 2003. Instead of reciprocal threats and clashes, the two parties’ supporters were singing in the streets, dancing the famous Kurdish dabke dance and decorating their cars and homes with their parties’ flags.

The elections will take place on Sept. 21, with 1,129 candidates participating, representing 30 political entities and competing for 100 parliamentary seats. Figures representing the Christian, Turkmen and Armenian minorities in the region are competing for 11 additional seats.