Enlarge imageBy Alastair Macdonald and Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Undeterred by scattered violence, Iraqis voted in overwhelming numbers in an election on Thursday, with minority Sunni Arabs who boycotted the last poll determined not to miss out on power again.
The demand to vote was so strong that polling stations were kept open an extra hour in some areas to allow those waiting in line to cast ballots. In Saddam Hussein’s home province more than 80 percent voted, an electoral official said.
The largely peaceful vote, which will raise U.S. hopes that a stable government can pave the way for American troops to pull out of Iraq, was in sharp contrast to January’s election for an interim assembly, when 40 people died.
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Sunni Arabs mostly boycotted that poll but took part with enthusiasm on Thursday, backed by nationalist rebels who vowed to protect those who voted.
Turnout in 10 hours of voting was at least 10 million, or 67 percent, Election Commission chief Hussein Hendawi told Reuters, much higher than the 58 percent seen on January 30.
In Kurdish regions and the Sunni north turnout was high, and in Falluja it touched 70 percent, local officials said.
"I’m delighted to be voting for the first time because this election will lead to the American occupation forces leaving," said Jamal Mahmoud, 21, in the battle-scarred Sunni city of Ramadi.
All polls were closed shortly after 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) and counting began immediately. As electoral workers opened each ballot box they said a quick prayer. Some provisional results may be known on Thursday, but definitive tallies could take two weeks or more, the Electoral Commission in Baghdad said.
United Nations envoy Ashraf Qazi was pleased: "All in all it was a good day and a historic day," he told Reuters. A White House spokesman also called it a historic day.
SPLIT VOTE?
Informal polling by Reuters around the country showed the ruling Shi’ite Islamist Alliance and their Kurdish allies still dominant in their southern and northern bases respectively.
But there also seemed to be a strong turnout in favour of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who heads a secular slate with candidates from across Iraq’s sectarian divides. He has sought to split the previously dominant Islamist Shi’ite vote.
While voting went well generally, two people were killed in mortar attacks in Mosul and Tal Afar in the north and three, including a U.S. Marine, were wounded when a mortar round landed in Baghdad’s Green Zone as polls opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT).
The interior minister said a suicide car bomber was shot dead in Baghdad and police said they arrested another east of the capital. The U.S. military separately announced that a Marine had been killed near Ramadi on Wednesday.
But a nationwide three-day traffic ban, and the presence of 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and police backed up by U.S. troops, succeeded in protecting 6,000 polling stations.
U.S. diplomats hope that if Sunnis are drawn into the political process, the revolt will be undermined, letting Iraqis gradually take over security without provoking a civil war.
"Ballot boxes are a victory of democracy over dictatorship," said Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari after voting, his finger purple with the dye that prevents double voting and is a symbol of Iraqi democracy. "They’ve chosen voting over bombs."
SUNNI TURNOUT
In Falluja, west of Baghdad, scene of the biggest battle between U.S. forces and rebels a year ago, a shortage of ballot papers and of vehicles to ferry infirm voters held up voting.
Bitter at the power exercised this year by an interim parliament of Shi’ite Islamists and Kurds, Sunni militants said they would defend polling stations in cities like Ramadi against al Qaeda and other groups who vowed to disrupt the vote.
"Sunni Arabs made a big mistake in boycotting the last election. I left us out of ... writing the constitution," said Talal Ali, 25, as he voted for the first time in Kirkuk.
He backed one of the main Sunni lists which wants to amend a constitution, agreed two months ago, that Sunnis say could hand Kirkuk’s oil to independence-minded Kurds and give Shi’ites control over the southern oilfields.
Once a coalition government is formed, which could take weeks, the first task of the new parliament is to address Sunni grievances over the constitution, passed with Shi’ite and Kurdish votes in a referendum.
While those battles lie ahead, there was hope of a better future among voters on Thursday.
In Baghdad, Shi’ite Hadi Mishaal, wounded in the 1991 Gulf War and forced by the traffic ban to hobble 2 km (over a mile) on a crutch to vote with his wife, said: "I hope we can have a government that will help me and give me my rights."
In Kirkuk, 60-year-old Sunni Arab Asmael Nouri said: "It is the first time I have tasted the freedom to express my view."
For many in the 60-percent Shi’ite majority, oppressed by Saddam, the vote was another chance to seek redress.
Religious voter Kadhmiya Alwan, 55, said in Najaf: "I demand they take my revenge on the regime that killed my two sons."
There were some signs secular parties, notably that led by Allawi, were cutting into the 48 percent vote the Islamist bloc took in January.
"We want freedom ... to drink alcohol, dance and go to nightclubs," said Allawi supporter Jasim Faisal, 34, in the southern city of Samawa.
Yet underlying a vote in which Iraqis can choose from 231 lists, is also widespread sectarian fear and mistrust.
Healing the rifts was the campaign theme of Allawi, appointed prime minister last year under U.S. occupation.
Many believe Allawi could lead a coalition government, a development Washington might endorse after losing patience with Jaafari, whose term has seen the rise of violent pro-government militias and warm ties with America’s enemies in Shi’ite Iran.
"We hope to see a formation of a strong government that can ... represent the main communities and be a government of national salvation," Allawi said after casting his vote.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed, Gideon Long, Alastair Macdonald, Omar al-Ibadi, Waleed Ibrahim, Mariam Karouny, Hiba Moussa and Mussab al-Khairalla in Baghdad, Aref Mohammed and Alister Bull in Kirkuk, Peter Graff in Amara, Fadil al-Badrani in Falluja, Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala, Twana Osman and Cyrille Cartier in Sulaimaniya, Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil, Abdel-Razzak Hameed in Basra, Ghasawn al-Jibouri in Tikrit, Ammar al-Alwani in Ramadi, Hamed Fadhil in Samawa, Khaled Farhan in Najaf and Deepa Babington in Mosul)
