Thousands of expatriate Iraqis began casting ballots on Friday in their country’s first free election for more than half a century, with emotions running high despite the relatively limited numbers taking part.
The first vote for Iraq’s 275-member transitional National Assembly was made by Shimon Haddad, manager of a polling centre in the suburb of Fairfield, Sydney, two days before the election in Iraq itself.
”I’m proud to vote for the election,” he said as polls opened at 7am (8pm GMT on Thursday) in Australia, the first of 14 nations worldwide taking part in the expatriate vote.
”We have been looking forward to this time [for the] last 50 years, actually, so it’s a very exciting day for Iraq citizens.”
Feelings remained strong as polling stations opened successively around the Middle East — where the bulk of votes were being cast — and then Europe and the United States, 22 months after the downfall of dictator Saddam Hussein.
Soror Kossain arrived to vote in Berlin with an Iraqi flag around his shoulders.
”I am proud to carry out my rights as a citizen,” he said.
Despite the emotion, only a maximum of 280 000 overseas Iraqis will vote for a regime to fill the vacuum left by Saddam, deposed by US-led troops in April 2003.
That is the number of Iraqis who registered to vote in a nine-day process that began on January 17 with optimistic estimates that up to a million expatriates might take part.
The heaviest polling was taking place in Iran, where more than 60 000 people from the large population exiled from its neighbour to the west were registered to vote.
At a mosque in Iran’s holy city of Qom, Iraqi exiles waited patiently to cast their votes, and voiced their dreams of a Shi’ite future for Iraq.
”The future government must be Islamic and pleasing to God,” said 35-year-old theology student Samir al-Shamari.
There were scenes of celebration at some other Middle Eastern voting centres, with electors cheering as Nazem Kazem Saoodi, a 60-year-old physician, became the first to vote in Dubai.
”Yes, we did it!” shouted Ali al-Kabeer, clapping his hands after casting his ballot, breaking into tears as he hugged his wife.
Kabeer said he had ”been waiting for this moment for 54 years”, 24 of which he spent in England and the United Arab Emirates.
”I’m doing this for my children … it’s the first step in a thousand-mile journey,” he said.
The run-up to the vote in Iraq itself has been marred by continuous violence within the country, with six dying on Friday alone, four of these in a suicide car bomb attack in southern Baghdad.
In contrast, the smooth-running operation to gather overseas votes, organised by the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration, has mainly had to contend with apathy.
In Britain, of a 150 000-strong Iraqi community estimated to be allowed to vote, just less than 31 000 registered, local organisers said.
Nonetheless, early voters living in Washington’s closest ally in the war to unseat Saddam were gleeful.
”I feel ecstatic, I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so excited,” said 47-year-old Eman al Kati, among the early voters at a polling station in London, one of three British cities taking part.
”It’s an historic moment. We have democracy in Iraq. I think it’s everybody’s personal duty to do this,” she said.
Security was tight at polling stations, especially in Turkey, amid fears that tensions between Kurds and Turkmens in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk might spill over the border.
Both Kurds and Turkmens, an Iraqi minority of Turkish descent, claim Kirkuk as their historical homeland.
Polling facilities were being made available in Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, The Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and United States.
The polls will stay open for 10 hours from 7am local time on each of the three days in the 36 cities and 14 countries involved, with foreign observers monitoring the process.
The results from overseas ballots will be sent to Baghdad to be announced on February 5. — Sapa-AFP