It appears that Gorran- "change" in Kurdish, has won the province of Sulaimaniya, one of the three official provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan.  The city of Sulaimaniya itself is widely considered by Kurds to be the most beautiful in the region- when I was there last year, Kurds bragged that it was the "Paris of Kurdistan." Sulaimaniya has been historically controlled by Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

This guarantees that for the first time, Iraqi Kurdistan will have a true political opposition party in the Kurdistan Regional Parliament.  This is a crucial step in invigorating Kurdistan's civil society, which is currently little more than a well-oiled patronage system controlled by leading Kurdish families.

It is important to note that Nawshiran Mustafa, the leader of Gorran, has strong historical ties to Jalal Talabani and the PUK.  Gorran did not even bother to field a candidate against President Massoud Barzani, who is revered, along with his late father Mullah Mustafa Barzani, for leading generations of peshmerga.   However, if Mustafa is able to claim a strong popular mandate, he may be able to resist selling himself off to the PUK or Barzani's KDP (Democratic Party of Kurdistan).