U.S. congressmen in Arbil

ARBIL/ IraqiNews.com: A U.S. congressional delegation on Saturday arrived in Arbil City and discussed with Kurdish President Massoud al-Barazani and several officials the results of the Kurdish polls as well as preparations for the country’s next parliamentary elections. “Today, the delegation, led by Sen. John McCain, arrived in Arbil City and met with the region’s president, prime minister and parliament speaker at the headquarters of the premier,” the media secretary of President Barazani, Faisal al-Dabbagh, told Iraqi News. The meeting tackled the results of the parliamentary and presidential polls, which have recently took place in the region, in addition to political alliances ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections in January 2010. Parliamentary and presidential elections for the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region were held on July 25 with the participation of 24 lists and five runners for the top post in Kurdistan. The parliamentary election is the third and the presidential election is the first to be held in the region. The Kurdistan List, formed by the two main Kurdish parties – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s President Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), occupied a majority of 59 seats in the Parliament. SS (S) 1