INITIAL results from an independence referendum in the Kurdistan region of Iraq should be known tomorrow, with the full outcome due later in this week.

More than 5.2 million voters in the three northern Iraqi provinces that make up the autonomous region were entitled to cast their ballot yesterday in a poll that Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi denounced as “unconstitutional”.

Residents in disputed territories – areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk – were also expected to vote. Kurdish leaders say an anticipated “yes” vote will give them a mandate to start negotiations on secession.

Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never had a permanent nation state.

In Iraq, where they account for up to 20 per cent of the 37 million population, Kurds faced decades of repression before acquiring autonomy in 1991.

“We have been waiting 100 years for this day,” said one man queuing to vote at a school in the Kurdistan region’s capital, Irbil. “We want to have a state, with God’s help. Today is a celebration for all Kurds. God willing, we will say yes, yes to dear Kurdistan.”

However, not all Kurds are expected to vote for independence. The Change Movement (Gorran) and Kurdistan Islamic Group parties raised objections to the timing and organisation of the referendum, while a businessman launched a “No4Now” campaign because of the economic and political risks of secession.

And in the disputed city of Kirkuk, the local ethnic Arab and Turkmen communities have called for a boycott.

Al-Abadi warned the referendum “threatens Iraq, peaceful co-existence among Iraqis, and is a danger to the region”.

He said: “We will take measures to safeguard the nation’s unity and protect all Iraqis.”

The central government has demanded that all international airports and border crossings be returned to its control, and asked all countries to “deal only with it on matters of oil and borders”.

Neighbouring Turkey and Iran also strongly objected to the poll, amid fears that it will stoke separatist feeling among their own Kurdish minorities.

Tehran yesterday called the vote “illegal and illegitimate” and said it had closed its borders with the Kurdistan region.

Ankara said it would consider the result of the referendum “null and void” and intended to form closer ties with Iraq’s central government.

The UN Security Council warned last week that the vote could hamper the fight against Daesh in Iraq, in which Kurdish forces have played a critical role, and efforts to ensure the return of three million displaced Iraqis.

Similarly, the United States also warned that it could destabilise the region amid the battle against Daesh. But Massoud Barzani, the Kurdistan regional president, accused the international community of having double standards.

“Asking our people to vote in a peaceful way is not a crime,” he said. “If democracy is bad for us, why isn’t it bad for everyone else?”

He said he believed that the voting would be peaceful, though he acknowledged that the path to independence would be “risky”.

“We are ready to pay any price for our independence,” he added.

Barzani said the referendum would not draw borders, and that afterwards there could be talks with Baghdad for a year or two.

However, he stressed that the “failed partnership” with the “theocratic, sectarian state” of Iraq was over.

Kirkuk, which is around 150 miles north of Baghdad, has large Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen and Christian communities and there were some low-level clashes in the days leading up to yesterday’s vote.

Sud Pirot, a Kirkuk Kurdish resident, said after voting: “I feel so great and happy, I feel we’ll be free. Nobody will rule us, we will be independent.”