Blasts fail to block march of progress

Iraqis are inking their fingers to guard against multiple voting. Picture / Reuters

A steady stream of Iraqi voters walked to polling sites nationwide yesterday to elect their first full-term Parliament since Saddam Hussein's overthrow, ignoring sporadic violence.

About 15 million people are eligible to vote in an election which many hope will pave the way for a withdrawal of the United States-led troops which toppled Saddam in April 2003.

From the Gulf to the mountainous borders of Turkey and Iran, war-weary voters will file into more than 6000 polling stations, ink their fingers to guard against multiple voting and drop their votes into ballot boxes.

Police said a mortar round was aimed at Baghdad's Green Zone compound but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage and voting was not interrupted.

Other blasts were reported in Ramadi and Tikrit.

About 150,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers were on the streets to prevent the suicide bombings and shootings which killed about 40 people on polling day at the last election on January 30.

US President George W. Bush earlier yesterday took the blame for going to war in Iraq over faulty intelligence but said he was right to topple Saddam and urged Americans to be patient. "We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of a brutal dictator."

Al Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups have vowed to disrupt the vote but their statements have been more muted in tone than in January, and the run-up to the election has, by Iraq's bloody standards, been calm.

"There is a quiet confidence that things are going to go well," UN envoy to Iraq Ashraf Qazi said.

With cars banned from the streets as a security measure, voters were having to walk to polling stations.

Turnout was expected to be high - perhaps 70 to 80 per cent compared with 59 per cent in January and 64 per cent in October's referendum on a new constitution.

There are no reliable opinion polls but observers expect the United Iraqi Alliance, a grouping of Islamic parties within the coalition Government, to win the most votes. Its share is expected to fall from the 48 per cent it won in January to about 40 per cent.

The Kurds, the next big bloc, are tipped to win about 25 per cent and will be pushed hard for second place by former Premier Iyad Allawi, whose coalition took 14 per cent in January but is expected to make ground.

The January ballot was for an interim Government charged with overseeing the drafting of a constitution. The charter, approved in a vote in October, paved the way for this week's election for a four-year Parliament.

The Sunni Arab minority, which mostly boycotted the last election, is largely planning to vote. Many Sunni leaders now acknowledge the boycott as a mistake and are urging their followers to eat into the votes of the UIA and Kurds.

Democracy and disorder

6655 candidates.

307 parties.

19 coalitions have been registered for the ballot. One-third of candidates in each party must be women.

150,000 Iraqi soldiers and police on patrol. Iraq's borders closed.

275 seat National Assembly will have four-year term.

18 province constituencies.

230 seats allocated according to size of population.

45 seats distributed to parties whose ethnic, religious or political support is spread over more than one province.

15 million eligible to vote.

BABIL: Police detain militant group planning to attack polling centres.

FALLUJAH: Bombs damaged three empty polling stations, 4000 ballot papers were stolen.

BAGHDAD: Thousands of Shiites demonstrated against al-Jazeera after it broadcast an interview with a Sunni commentator criticising Shiite leaders.

NASSIRIYAH: The offices of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were burned.

TIKRIT: Gunmen attacked a polling station and a mortar was fired at another.

RAMADI: An explosion hit the city after polls opened, followed by gunfire. There were no casualty reports.


- REUTERS