Polls Close in Iraq Elections, No Major Violence
Saturday, January 31, 2009
AP
Jan. 31: An Iraqi man casts his ballot in the country's
provincial elections in Baghdad, Iraq.
Jan. 31: An Iraqi man casts his ballot in the
country's provincial elections in Baghdad, Iraq.
BAGHDAD — Iraq's provincial elections
have wrapped up without any reports of serious violence.
Polls
closed at 6 p.m. (10 a.m. EST) on Saturday — an hour later than planned
— after millions of voters cast ballots for influential regional
councils around most of Iraq. There were no reports of major violence.
Iraqi
authorities imposed a huge security operation around the country that
included traffic bans in major cities and extensive checkpoints and
surveillance posts. The U.S. military also was out in force but did not
take a direct role in the election security.
Results from the elections are not expected before
Tuesday.
Click here for photos.
Iraqis
passed through security checkpoints and razor-wire cordons to vote
Saturday in provincial elections that are considered a crucial test of
the nation's stability as U.S. officials weigh the pace of troop
withdrawals.
Polls opened shortly after
dawn after a step-by-step security clampdown across the country,
including traffic bans in central Baghdad and other major cities and
closure of border crossings and airports.
Though there was no major violence during voting, there were some
disruptions at the polls.
A
Kurdish official said hundreds of Iraqi Kurds stormed an election
office in a disputed city after claiming many Kurds were not on voting
lists for provincial elections. There were no reports of serious
injuries.
The protest in Khanaqin on
Saturday is part of lingering disputes over control of the city about
80 miles northeast of Baghdad. In August, Kurdish and Iraqi forces were
locked in a tense standoff before the Kurds backed off.
Salahuddin
Kekhaa, a Kurdish official in Khanaqin, says Kurds held a rally to
claim that thousands of Kurds were left off voting list. Then they
tried to break into the local election office but were turned back, he
said
Ghufran al-Saidi, a Shiite lawmaker
in the Sadr City district, said a military officer opened fire in
Baghdad after voters chanted slogans at a polling station. He said two
people were injured, one of them seriously.
Iraq's military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim
al-Moussawi, told Al-Arabiya television that one person was killed and
one injured after some people tried to carry mobile phones through
security cordons.
The reason for the conflicting accounts was not
immediately clear.
In
Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, three mortar shells exploded
near a polling station, but caused no casualties, said police, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
speak to media.
A bomb found near a Tikrit voting center was
defused, police added.
In
the Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah, Iraqi police and army soldiers
manned a series of checkpoints — some only 200 yards apart. Stores were
closed and the streets cleared of cars.
A
group of U.S. soldiers patrolled on foot, but well away from polling
centers. The U.S. military assisted in security preparations for the
elections, but said troops would only be called in on election day if
needed.
In the western city of Fallujah —
once a center of the Sunni insurgency — police used their patrol cars
to help some people get to voting stations.
More
than 14,000 candidates are running for 440 seats on the influential
councils in all of Iraq's provinces except for the autonomous Kurdish
region in the north and the province that includes oil-rich Kirkuk,
where ethnic groups were unable to reach a power-sharing formula. Polls
were to close at 5 p.m. Preliminary results are not expected before
Tuesday.
Voters headed home waved their
purple-tinted index fingers, which are dipped in ink to identify people
who already cast ballots. The ink-stained fingers became an iconic
image of Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein elections four years ago.
Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki, shadowed by a bodyguard, dipped his finger
into an ink box after voting in the walled Green Zone enclave in
Baghdad.
He appealed for a high turnout — which would help
boost his government's attempts to use the election as a sign of progress.
"This
gives a picture of trust in the government, the elections and the
people's right to take part in this democratic process," he said.
Although
violence is sharply down — and with pre-election attacks relatively
limited — authorities were unwilling to take any risks.
An
election without major attacks or charges of irregularities would
provide a critical boost for Iraqi authorities as the U.S. military
hands over more security responsibilities. But serious bloodshed or
voting chaos could steal momentum from supporters of a fast-paced
withdrawal of U.S. combat troops next year.
The
provincial councils have no direct sway in national affairs, but carry
significant authority through their ability to negotiate local business
deals, allocate funds and control some regional security operations.
This
election is also a possible dress rehearsal for bigger showdowns in
national elections later this year, when the U.S.-allied government of
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could face a power challenge from the
country's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
The
security measures implemented for the election brought back memories of
the most deadly years of the war. The closely monitored frontiers with
Iran and Syria were among borders that were sealed. A nighttime curfew
also was in place, apparently to block extremist groups that plant
roadside bombs under cover of darkness.
Voters
in many places passed through double-ring search cordons. Women
teachers and other civilians were recruited to help search for possible
female suicide bombers.
Iraqi helicopters
swept over major cities and aircraft monitored stretches of the closed
Iranian border, security officials said.
In Baqouba, the capital of the violence-wracked
Diyala Province northwest of Baghdad, long lines formed.
"We
were not able to vote during the 2005 elections because of the
deteriorating security situation," said Ahmed Jassim, 19. "But now we
feel safe enough to go out and vote."
Iraqi
special forces in full combat gear patrolled streets in Baghdad's
Fadhil district, which was once a hub in the Sunni insurgents' car bomb
network. The tense atmosphere there contrasted with the more relaxed
mood in other parts of the city.
In
Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood — once a stronghold of support for
Saddam Hussein's regime — a voting station at a girls' high school
still carried a small image of Saddam, calling him the nation's "hero
and martyr."
But one voter, Zaid
Abdul-Karim, 44, said the elections will hopefully ease tensions
between Shiites who gained power by Saddam's downfall and Sunnis who
perceive themselves as sidelined since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
"These
are the people we need now: people who represent everyone in Iraq and
have no sectarian bias," said Abdul-Karim, a government employee.
In
the southern Shiite city of Basra, 40-year-old Haidar Mahmoud said he
felt pressure to vote for the Supreme Council candidates, but changed
his mind and backed al-Maliki's supporters.
"If
it wasn't for al-Maliki there would still be killing on the street.
Maybe I can change Basra for the better by voting today," he said.
Among Sunni groups, powerful newcomers could
reshape the political hierarchy.
In
Anbar province, the Sunni tribes which rose up against Al Qaeda and
other insurgents — and led to a turning point of the war — are now
seeking to transform their fame into council seats and significantly
increase their role in wider Iraqi affairs. Their gains could come at
the expense of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic party in the current government.
A
couple who fled to Kuwait in 2004 to escape the violence returned to
their northern Baghdad neighborhood to vote Saturday. Salih Zawad Ali
and his wife Zeinab looked longingly around the Sulaykh district after
casting their ballots.
"I hope and pray we can come back," she said.
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