Big turnout in Iraq election as Sunnis vote

By 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.

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 who voted in the
previous election on January 30.

The demand to vote was so strong that polling stations were
kept open an extra hour to allow those waiting in line to cast
ballots. In Saddam Hussein’s home province more than 80 percent
of voters turned out, 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
eventually pull out of Iraq, was in sharp contrast to January’s
election for an interim assembly, when 40 people died.

Sunni Arabs mostly boycotted that poll but took part with
determination and enthusiasm on Thursday, backed by nationalist
rebels who vowed to protect voters.

In Falluja turnout touched 70 percent, local officials
said, and in Kurdish regions and the Shi’ite south it was also
high.

There was a range of complaints about voting
irregularities, and allegations flew about attempts to
influence the vote in some northern cities, but overall the
process went smoothly, the Electoral Commission said in
Baghdad.

“I’m delighted to be voting for the first time because this
election will lead to American occupation forces leaving,” said
Jamal Mahmoud, 21, in the battle-scarred Sunni city of Ramadi.

Polls closed shortly after 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) and counting
began immediately. As electoral workers opened each ballot box
they said a quick prayer. Definitive results are not expected
for two weeks or more, the Electoral Commission said.

United Nations envoy Ashraf Qazi was pleased: “All in all
it was a good day and a historic day,” he told Reuters. The
U.S. ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, was also impressed.
“The turnout has been dramatically higher,” he told Reuters.

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 favor 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. It 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
the constitution, agreed two months ago, that Sunnis say could
hand Kirkuk’s oil riches 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. Another challenge is building up
Iraqi security forces so foreign troops can go home.

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.

But 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 Shi’ite city of Samawa.

Yet underlying a vote in which Iraqis can choose among 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 he could lead a broad 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.

“Since no single party will have a majority there will be a
need for a very broad-based coalition,” said Khalilzad, the
U.S. ambassador. “There’s many other steps to come. It’s
important to keep up the momentum.”

(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)