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Voting starts in Iraq's 1st election since 2005
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-28 17:07 BAGHDAD - Soldiers, police, prisoners and displaced people began early voting on Wednesday ahead of Saturday's provincial election in Iraq, which will determine the political landscape across the country as US forces withdraw.
The election is the first in Iraq since 2005, and holding it peacefully will be a test of Iraq's tenuous stability as it emerges from years of sectarian war. In the Shi'ite south, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki aims to win support in provinces long dominated by large rival parties. Elsewhere, Sunni Arabs, many of whom boycotted the last provincial poll, are seeking a bigger share of provincial power. The elections are a political test for Shi'ite Maliki, who himself faces the voters in national elections due this year. "Maliki has given us security and given us in the police and the army some respect in society," said policeman Mohammed Khalaf Saleh, queuing at a primary school in Basra where police piled their pistols on a table outside before going in to vote. Wednesday's special vote was called to ensure that soldiers and police can all be on duty for a massive security operation during the main election on Saturday, when vehicles will be banned from the streets. Security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said there were no violent incidents reported in the capital Baghdad in the first few hours of voting. "This day is a victory for all Iraqis," said Major-General Abdul Amir Ridha Mohammed, an Iraqi division commander, holding up a finger dyed with purple ink that proved he voted, in the northern city of Kirkuk where the main poll has been postponed indefinitely but troops from other parts of Iraq can vote. At Ma'qal prison in Basra, inmates queued to vote in orange jumpsuits. "I don't know who to vote for but a sheikh wrote this number on my hand and I will vote for this number," one said. Guards beat several journalists there, accusing them of taking pictures showing inmates' faces. Test as US Withdraws Holding a successful election is an important test of the ability of Iraqi troops to keep the peace as 140,000 US troops begin to leave. US President Barack Obama wants to speed up the pace of withdrawal after his predecessor George W. Bush promised to pull out the troops by the end of 2011. Iraqis have embraced the voting enthusiastically. Some 14,400 candidates, including nearly 4,000 women, have registered to fight for 440 provincial council seats. Campaign posters are plastered all over the concrete blast walls that have sprung up throughout the country since the US-led invasion in 2003. Mobile phones countrywide have been beeping in unison for days as parties send out mass text messages seeking support. The election campaign so far has not seen a surge in violence feared by US and Iraqi commanders. At least two candidates were assassinated, but overall attacks have remained at among the lowest levels since the war began. Once seen as a weak leader, the prime minister strengthened his hand over the past year after cracking down on militias and winning the US commitment to withdraw within three years. But he still has only a limited power base in the provinces. His Shi'ite rivals, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, control nearly all of the provinces in the south and are hoping to tighten their grip. Another potent Shi'ite group, followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, are on the back foot after Maliki's troops defeated their militia last year. US commanders also hope the election can reduce violence in the volatile north of the county, where Kurds have wielded power and Sunni Arabs have felt excluded since many Sunnis boycotted the last provincial poll in 2005. It may be at least a month before the outcome is clear. Preliminary counts will not be available for days and the final tally for weeks. Then it could take weeks more for councils to meet, form coalitions and pick new governors. |
