Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports that recently, Kurdish Islamic parties have broken with tradition by decentralising power and bringing in new senior members.

They are trying to modernize to attract voters. But the region has a history of secular politics that some analysts say Islamist politicians will find hard to break.

In stark contrast to much of Iraq, the country's Kurdish north is relatively peaceful.

For most of the past 10 years, two secular parties have shared power.

However, now Islamic groups are becoming more popular.