Iraq elections 'better than expected', says Rice

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Iraq elections are “going better than expected” today, despite conflicting reports about the extent of voter turnout in areas plagued by intimidation and violence.

“Every indication is that the election in Iraq is going better than expected,” Rice said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“What we’re seeing here is the voice of freedom,” Rice said in the first response to the election from President George W. Bush’s administration.

“No, it’s not a perfect election,” Rice conceded, but she called it a positive development no one had foreseen three years ago when Saddam Hussein was still the dictator of Iraq.

Rice spoke today less than an hour before the Iraqi poll closing.

The Bush administration has a big stake in the election’s success.

Bush gave up his usual weekend getaway at the Camp David presidential retreat to remain at the White House to monitor the results and the violence as Iraqis held their nation’s first free election in a half-century.