Iraqi voters defy threats and bombs

In the face of bomb and mortar attacks that killed 38 people and wounded 89 others, Iraqis went to the polls yesterday to elect a new Parliament.

In a sinister new twist to insurgent methods, explosives were placed in rooms rented by bombers in two apartment blocks in Baghdad and later detonated, destroying them both.

This tactic, employed against the majority Shiite community, could spark a new wave of fear despite heavy security, and checkpoints every few hundred metres.

In one residential building in the Shaab district of Baghdad, about 25 people were killed by a bomb.

Vote-counting was already under way last night, but it is unlikely that the election for the 325-member Parliament will produce a majority for any single party or coalition, and a new Government will be formed only after weeks of hard bargaining over top jobs and control of ministries.

The outcome is likely to be the return of a Shiite-Kurdish coalition, but possibly under a new Prime Minister, replacing Nouri Maliki.

The United States is watching the results nervously, fearing that any escalation in political turmoil and violence might put in doubt the Obama Administration's plan to withdraw all its combat troops by the end of August this year and its remaining soldiers by the end of 2011.

In Washington, President Barack Obama paid tribute to Iraqi voters' courage, saying their participation showed that "the Iraqi people have chosen to shape their future through the political process".

The poll on Sunday saw millions of people, out of the 19 million eligible to vote, go to polling stations in the first parliamentary election since 2005. Unlike that election, which was largely boycotted by the once-dominant Sunni community, the Sunnis appeared to have voted in large numbers this time.

This was despite threats from the Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella organisation for al Qaeda, that it would target voters, and despite sporadic mortar attacks on polling places in Baghdad and Fallujah.

Many Sunnis consider past boycotts to have been a mistake because they benefited Shiite and Kurdish parties. Maliki, who is leading the State of Law coalition, said that attacks yesterday were "just noises to scare the Iraqi people from voting".

He has presented himself as the strong leader who has brought security to Iraq, crushed the Shiite militias, negotiated the departure of US forces and made a start in restoring services. His own Dawa Party held only 10 seats in the previous Parliament, but he has the advantage of a US$60 billion ($85 billion) budget and millions of government jobs, which puts him at the head of great patronage network.

The Prime Minister may have been weakened by a series of large bomb attacks since last August in which suicide bombers detonated trucks filled with explosives outside ministries and hotels, killing many civilians.

The main opposition to Maliki is two other coalitions - the Iraqi National Alliance and Iraqiya. The first is more overtly Shiite and the second, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Alawi, claims to be more secular and to enjoy Sunni support.

Crucial to forming a new Government will be the support of the Kurds, who make up a fifth of the Iraqi population and usually succeed in positioning themselves as kingmakers. In the past two years, their leaders have become increasingly hostile to Maliki, primarily because of quarrels over control of a wide band of territory in northern Iraq, including the oil city of Kirkuk.

Preliminary results in the election are due be announced by the end of the week, based on votes cast at 30 per cent of polling stations.

ACROSS IRAQ: VOTERS' HOPES

"We have to go out and vote because there is too much corruption. We have suffered for a long time but are getting nothing back from the Government. I think Maliki himself is honest but he is surrounded by corrupt people."
Haidar al-Habshi, a Shiite tailor from Kadhamiyah

"This Government is not for all the people. They tried to stop the Sunni parties taking part in the election saying they were Baathists. I want to vote for a secular party but everything is now divided along religious lines. This is wrong."
Omar Mohammed Ghilani, a Sunni, in Arasat

"I pray every day to see a good man come to power to save us from the sufferings we are living. Explosions and killing occur every day. All we want is a good man."
Shaker Mahmoud Jassem, Basra

"We gave our votes for Kurdistan. We don't care about Baghdad. This is Kurdistan."
Badri Hurmuz, 74, near Mosul

"When I put the ballot paper in the box, my tears fell ... I am sure he [her dead husband] watched me from the grave while I voted for the Kurdish people. My vote will heal my wounds from when the Iraqi Army shot him dead in Saddam's time."
Fatma Aziz, Sulaimaniya, in Iraqi Kurdistan

"Democracy in Iraq is chaotic. Everyone lies."
Abdul Rasheed al-Tamimi, a labourer in Shia city of Najaf

- INDEPENDENT