Iraq went to the polls for the third time since the fall of Saddam Hussein but for many Iraqis the election has held little hope.

Iraqi soldiers and police officers have cast their ballots for provincial elections, a week before the main vote that comes amid a surge in violence.

Although the West is pulling out its armies, the war is by no means over for the Arab world, a former adviser warns. Nick Hopkins reports.

Iraq’s divided political factions sealed a power-sharing deal more than eight months after an inconclusive general election.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki emerged on Monday as a frontrunner after an election seen as a test of the nation’s young democracy.

Iraqis voted behind barbed wire and rings of police on Saturday in an election that tested the war-battered country’s fragile security gains.

In the male arena that is Iraqi politics, it was a striking sight. A local sports ground, an election rally and a candidate — a female candidate.