Saddam stands unopposed in referendum

Although Saddam Hussein stands unopposed in today’s presidential referendum, the Iraqi government is still pushing for the highest percentage of 'yes' votes.

For weeks, state television and radio have aired a constant pitch for people to grant the Iraqi leader another seven-year term.

His Baath Party has staged neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood rallies and vote drives built around the slogan: 'Yes, Yes, Yes Saddam.'

In the last referendum, on October 15, 1995, Saddam received 99.96% of the vote. This time, authorities are looking for a higher percentage.

Nearly 12 million people are expected to cast ballots at 1,905 polling stations in 72 districts.

Most polling stations are at schools plastered with posters of the leader. To encourage voter turnout, sherbets, biscuits and hot tea are served, and children put on shows of patriotic songs.

Iraq has sought to present the vote as a rebuke to the United States.

US President George Bush yesterday called Iraq 'part of the war on terror' as he denounced the attacks in Yemen, Kuwait and Bali.

At an election eve rally last night in Baghdad’s People’s Stadium, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan condemned the US over reported plans for a post-Saddam military occupation of Iraq - saying it showed the Bush government as a 'crazy and evil administration'.

In Iraq, where it is unheard of to criticise Saddam in public, it is not hard to find average people speaking bitter words about the United States and its allies - along with flowery praise for the Iraqi president.

Sitting at the door of his house in Kerbala, 75 miles south of Baghdad, Ali Ahmed Abdul Munaim waited for the school across the road to open so he could vote 'and get it over with', as he put it.

"I am voting not for Saddam, because my vote for Saddam was determined long ago, but I am voting against America and Britain," Abdul Munaim said today.

A polling station in Mahmoudia, 25 miles south of Baghdad, was crowded already in the first hour of voting.

"We are voting for our country and our dignity. Saddam is one of us - he was not forced by international powers to run the country," Hikmat Sadoun said while waiting his turn to vote.

"When he became president in 1979, we looked at him as the young challenging man and we still do," he added.

Polls opened at 6am Irish time and were to close at 6pm Irish time.

The government organised tours for journalists to different parts of the country to witness the voting. More than half the journalists went to Saddam’s hometown, Tikrit.