Bloodless Iraq vote leaves divide on constitution

BAGHDAD - Up to 10 million Iraqis voted in a referendum on Saturday, protected by a vast security screen that deterred all but a few ineffectual insurgent attacks.

The Sunni Arab minority turned out in force for the first time since US troops toppled fellow Sunni Saddam Hussein, bolstering the "No" vote against a constitution drawn up by an parliament elected in January and led by Shi'ites and Kurds.

Fighting and fear kept voters away in some Sunni cities in the west and north; confidence in a big "Yes" may have depressed turnout in Shi'ite and Kurdish areas. But security was tight.

Six Iraqi soldiers were killed in two attacks not clearly related to the election. Although three mortar rounds fell near one Baghdad voting site, the only people hurt while voting included several struck by shots from nervous police and troops. And militants seized ballot boxes in one Baghdad voting station.

More than 40 people were killed during January's vote.

Supporters of the charter were quick to portray the vote by Sunnis, who mostly boycotted January's election, as adding legitimacy to the U.S.-sponsored process, even if they voted against; critics say a document intended to foster unity risks tearing the nation apart along religious and ethnic fault lines.

As in January, voters joyful or defiant, whether for or against the constitution, wagged in the air index fingers stained with the purple ink that proved they had voted.

Turnout among the 15.5 million voters may have been around 10 million, Electoral Commission member Farid Ayar told Reuters. At least eight of 18 provinces saw turnout above 66 per cent, but in two, maybe three, it was below 33 per cent, officials said.

Though counts got under way as soon as 10 hours of voting ended at 5 pm, election officers said it may be a day or more before any official indication of the result.

SECTARIAN ARITHMETIC

But Iraq's sectarian arithmetic and healthy turnouts in Shi'ite and Kurdish areas left government officials fairly confident of a "Yes" vote in spite of Sunni defiance and some strong "No" votes among nationalist Shi'ites in the south.

There is a veto clause if two thirds of voters in three of 18 provinces reject it, but this has also seemed a stretch.

"I voted 'Yes' because the constitution will fire a bullet into the heart of terrorism," said Raad Farraj after he voted in Baghdad's poor Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City, expressing the hopes of many in the 60-per cent majority community, many of whose religious leaders had urged them to back the charter.

"I came here to participate and not make the same mistake we made at the last election," said Yassin Humadi, 57, at a busy polling station in Falluja, a bastion of Sunni militancy.

"We will not allow the others to control the Sunnis again."

"Every Iraqi who loves Iraq must vote 'No', because a 'Yes' means backing the Americans and their agents," said Sajida Mahmood, a 40-year-old Falluja housewife.

Elsewhere in heavily Sunni Anbar province, however, clashes between militants and US and Iraqi forces in the capital Ramadi and fear of fighting in other towns kept people away. No overall turnout figure was immediately available.

In Mosul in the north, militants handed out fliers warning voters against taking part in a fake ballot run by Uncle Sam.

The United States, with more than 150,000 troops struggling against the Sunni insurgency, wants a constitution in place on a tight schedule and has bargained hard to narrow the gap between Sunni moderates and the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government.

US President George W. Bush, keen to show progress after criticism of his Iraq policy, called the vote "a critical step forward in Iraq's march towards democracy". Replying to Islamist taunts, he said, "America will not run" as it did from Vietnam.

COMPROMISE DEAL

A US-brokered compromise last week secured a promise that the constitution voted on Saturday would be reviewed by a new parliament, involving Sunnis, to be elected in December.

That means more hard bargaining ahead, particularly on key issues like the role of Islam in the law and the powers of federal regions, especially over oil and water resources.

Many Sunnis complain that provisions for regional autonomy risk tearing the country into warring regions, with southern Shi'ites and northern Kurds in control of the main oilfields.

The Sunni rulers of the rest of the Arab world also accuse Islamist leaders in Baghdad of bowing to Shi'ite, non-Arab Iran.

Parliamentary speaker Hajim al-Hassani hailed the fact that his fellow Sunnis had at least voted and would do so again: "One community had been sidelined. Now this community is taking part and will have a role in amending the constitution," he said.

Iyad Allawi, the first prime minister under US occupation and a secular Shi'ite, said: "Today is not the end. We still have ... big problems ... The whole draft is open for review."

In hundreds of interviews, a comfortable majority of Iraqis told Reuters they had backed the charter.

But the "No" camp could surprise. At a polling centre in Baghdad's Green Zone government compound, out of nearly 700 voters including Iraq's Kurdish president and Shi'ite prime minister, 36 per cent rejected the draft, count officials said.

In the Shi'ite city of Samawa, officials said several polling stations showed strong "No" votes, apparently reflecting support for nationalist Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

In Hilla, a predominantly Shi'ite city south of Baghdad, one college professor, Aman Mehdi Jabber, said: "It's a new page for the future and something important for the Arab world."

- REUTERS