Iraqis were voting in provincial elections today in a crucial test for a nation struggling to emerge from years of sectarian strife and strengthen its fledgling democracy. Security for Iraq's first ballot since 2005 was extremely tight with Iraqi police and military deployed in strength as part of ramped-up measures aimed at preventing militant attacks. About 15 million eligible Iraqis have been called to cast ballots in 14 of 18 provinces at thousands of voting centres that opened at 7am and will close at 5pm. In Baghdad, Ghufran al-Saidi, a politican in the Sadr City district, said a military officer opened fire today after voters chanted slogans at a polling station. He said two people were injured, one of them seriously. The Iraqi 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 the city of Tikrit, the hometown of the executed dictator Saddam Hussein, four so-called flash bombs exploded near several polling centres. Police said the bombs had missed their mark and there were no casualties. Although security has much improved in Iraq in recent months, al Qa'eda and insurgents continue to mount attacks on citizens and security forces, especially in the Diyala province and the northern city of Mosul.
"The people are afraid to come to vote because of the terrorists, but I came to vote to show to the people that they don't have to be afraid," said Mushtar Jabar, 32, a taxi driver in Baquba, the capital of Diyala. Rajaa Alaa, a housewife in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad, said she had also decided to vote because security was better than before. "I did not vote the last time because it was too dangerous but this time it is different," Alaa said as she left the polling station. "The whole family went together to vote because we want peace and I think that this election can bring peace."
Today's election is seen as a key test of Iraq's steadily improving stability and political system as the US president Barack Obama looks to redeploy American troops to Afghanistan. "Obviously the president will watch the results, and believes that the provincial elections this weekend mark another significant milestone in Iraq's democratic development," the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday.
Ahead of the vote, authorities sealed Iraq's borders, shut down airports and imposed transport bans and night-time curfews as part of the massive security lockdown for the election. Robert Wood, the US state department's acting spokesman, said observers from the US embassy in Baghdad as well as reconstruction teams composed of US civilians will help monitor the elections. "Our hopes are that basically the Iraqis have a free, fair, transparent election, free of violence," Mr Wood told reporters.
The United Nations and Iraq's Independent High Election Commission is organising the elections, with 800 international observers expected to oversee the balloting. More than 14,400 candidates are standing for 440 seats in councils, which appoint the provincial governor and oversee finance and reconstruction, with a combined budget of US$2.5 billion (Dh9.1bn). Sunni Arabs are expected to turn out in large numbers in a reversal of the January 2005 parliamentary elections they boycotted, then still angry about the US-led invasion to depose Saddam Hussein.
The vote is also being seen as a quasi referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. The Shiite premier has emerged in recent months as stronger-than-expected leader, promoting a secular national agenda in response to the sectarian strife that tore Iraq apart in the wake of the 2003 invasion. Mr al Maliki hailed what he said appeared to be a strong and called on his compatriots to vote in large numbers. "I am very happy today because all our information shows that we are going to see a large participation in the vote by Iraqis," he said after casting his ballot in the highly-fortified Green zone in Baghdad. "I call on all my Iraqi brothers and sisters to vote," he said. The level of turnout will be an indicator of "the Iraqi people's trust in their government and in the elections," which he said were "proof that the Iraqi people are now living in real security." Although Mr al Maliki is not standing in the election, he has thrown his support behind a list of candidates that make up the State of Law Coalition.
The vote will not include the three autonomous Kurdish provinces ? Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah, all in the north. Elections have been postponed in the oil-rich Kirkuk province, which the Kurds want to incorporate despite fierce opposition by the central government. *AFP
