Iraqis voted on Thursday in a landmark poll to choose a four-year government that many hope will restore security to a nation wracked by violence and sectarian feuding since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Despite blanket security, one man was killed in a grenade attack in the northern city of Mosul and there was a spate of mortar strikes in Baghdad, including one in the heavily fortified Green Zone that left several people injured, including a United States soldier.
“The most important thing is for Iraqis to express themselves with ballots, not blasts,” said Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
The strict security measures brought Iraq to a halt as 15,5-million Iraqis were called to vote for a 275-member Parliament, with top candidates pledging to restore stability and pave the way for an exit of foreign troops.
“It’s a national celebration for all Iraqis,” said President Jalal Talabani, the country’s first Kurdish head of state.
Iraqis poured into the streets to walk to polling stations because of a vehicle ban aimed at stopping car bomb attacks, turning Baghdad into a virtual ghost town.
In the capital and in the restive Sunni city of Fallujah, disabled voters in wheelchairs and on crutches joined neighbours to cast their ballots.
In the Shi’ite south, turnout was increasing by the hour. In the holy city of Najaf, as well as the main southern city of Basra, residents already began to celebrate the victory of the main religious Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance coalition.
New beginning
The vote, the third this year, marks a new beginning for Iraq following the US-led invasion in March 2003 to oust Saddam, two transitional governments and the adoption of a Constitution in October.
In a taste of Western-exported pluralism, 7 655 candidates and 307 political entities, nearly triple the number that stood in January, are running, with turnout among the ousted Sunni minority expected to be much higher this time.
“The next Parliament will represent all Iraqis, be they Shi’ite, Sunni, Kurd, Turkmen or Christian,” said Vice-President Abdel Abdel Mehdi, tipped by many as the next prime minister.
US President George Bush, whose approval ratings slumped as the US body count from Iraq rose, said the new democracy will serve as a “model” for the Middle East.
Roughly 2 150 US soldiers have been killed since the 2003 invasion, which Bush admitted on Wednesday had been based on wrong intelligence.
An estimated 30 000 Iraqi civilians have been killed.
In a first assessment on the vote, electoral official Safwat Rashid said: “There are some incidents, but I have no report of a direct hit. It’s going smoothly around the country.”
However, Iraq’s leading secular Shi’ite candidate, former prime minister Iyad Allawi, complained that his supporters had been attacked and killed during the campaign.
Suicide attacks, shootings and kidnapping have become rife due to a deadly insurgency driven by Sunni Arab nationalism and partly hijacked by al-Qaeda.
Adjourned for the election, Saddam’s trial on charges of crimes against humanity threatens to exacerbate ethnic tensions in a country increasingly mired in intercommunal violence.
Voters’ demands
At the top of voters’ demands are stability and the restoration of public services such as electricity and water.
Following purported threats from al-Qaeda to “ruin the ‘democratic’ wedding of heresy and immorality”, virtually all Iraq’s 190 000 police and army were mobilised, with US-led troops providing perimeter security for voting stations.
Iraq has been closed to the outside world. Civilians are banned from carrying weapons and driving to polling stations that opened at 7am local time and were to close at 5pm.
Shi’ites and Kurds, who dominated the transitional administration, are looking to a full-term Parliament as a chance to cement their grip on power after decades of oppression.
The Sunni minority, overturning a previous boycott of the political process, is expected to vote en masse to counter a government dominated by religious Shi’ites and a break-up of Iraq into autonomous Kurdish and Shi’ite zones.
“The Shi’ites have more seats than they deserve and because of this there has been state terrorism and killings,” charged Mekky Latif, an election observer in Fallujah.
The first task of the elected 275 MPs will be to appoint, by a two-thirds majority, a president and two vice-presidents.
The presidential council will then have 15 days to name a prime minister, who has 30 days to form a Cabinet with parliamentary approval.
On Tuesday, US Senator Richard Lugar emerged from a White House briefing to say that installing an operational government might take months. — AFP