Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani raised the possibility on Thursday of early elections in the autonomous region after a spate of protests there.
His remarks are the first sign that Kurdish authorities have been willing to meet the demands of demonstrators since rallies in the region's second biggest city of Sulaimaniyah last month left three people dead.
"I ask the parliament to consult political parties to study the possibility of early elections, because the people should decide and give their opinion and judgment," he said on television.
"I also call for the acceleration of the process for provincial elections to be held in Kurdistan," Barzani added. He was referring to provincial polls that were held across Iraq in January 2009 but not in the Kurdish region, comprised of three provinces in the country's north and the disputed province of Kirkuk.
Elections for the region's parliament and presidency were last held in July 2009, with Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan taking the lion's share of seats.
Barzani, re-elected president in 2009, and his party have controlled the region, in concert with the PUK, for decades.
While Kurdistan is widely considered to be safer and more stable than the rest of Iraq, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Sulaimaniyah last month complaining about the stranglehold the two parties have, as well as corruption.
Those demonstrations were part of nationwide protests throughout much of February. On February 25, billed as a "Day of Rage", rallies took place in 17 different cities.
Iraqi authorities have attempted to head off the protests by cutting politicians' pay and ramping up food assistance to the poor. Until Barzani's remarks, however, Kurdish politicians had not made any tangible moves to placate the demonstrators.
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