Joy, violence and uncertainty in Iraq

Iraqis embraced democracy in large numbers, standing in long lines to vote in defiance of mortar attacks, suicide bombers and boycott calls. Pushed in wheelchairs or carts if they could not walk, the elderly, the young and women in veils cast ballots in Iraq’s first free election in 50 years.

“We broke a barrier of fear,” Mijm Towirish, an election official, said.

Uncertain Sunni turnout, a string of militant attacks that killed 44 and the crash of a British military plane drove home that chaos in Iraq was not over yet.

Yet the mere fact the vote went off seemed to ricochet instantly around a world hoping for Arab democracy and fearing Islamic extremism.

“I am doing this because I love my country, and I love the sons of my nation,” said Shamal Hekeib, 53, who walked with his wife 20 minutes to a polling station near his Baghdad home.

“We are Arabs, we are not scared and we are not cowards,” Hekeib said.

With helicopters flying low and gunfire close by, at least 200 voters stood calmly in line at midday yesterday outside one polling station in the heart of Baghdad. Inside, the tight security included at least four body searches, and a ban on lighters, cell phone batteries, cigarette packs and even pens.

The feeling was sometimes festive. One election volunteer escorted a blind man back to his home after he cast his vote. A woman too frail to walk by herself arrived on a cart pushed by a young relative. Entire families showed up in their finest clothes.

But for the country’s minority Sunni Arabs, who held a privileged position under Saddam Hussein, the day was not as welcome.

No more than 400 people voted in Saddam’s home town of Tikrit and in the heavily Sunni northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Azamiyah, where Saddam made his last known public appearance in early April 2003, the four polling stations never opened.

The Iraqi electoral commission said it believed, based on anecdotal information, that turnout among the estimated 14 million eligible voters appeared higher than the 57% that had been predicted, although it would be some time before any precise turnout figure was confirmed.

The ticket endorsed by the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was the pre-voting favourite, while Interim prime minister Iyad Allawi’s slate was also considered strong. But officials said it might take 10 days to determine the winner.

“The world is hearing the voice of freedom from the centre of the Middle East,” said US president George Bush, who called the election a success. He promised the United States would continue training Iraqi soldiers, hoping they can soon secure a country America invaded nearly two years ago to topple Saddam.

The vote to elect a 275-National Assembly and 18 provincial legislatures is only the first step on Iraq’s road to self-rule and stability. Once results are in, it could take weeks of backroom deals before a prime minister and government are picked by the new assembly.

If that government proves successful by drawing in the minority Sunni Arabs who partly shunned the election, the country could stabilise, hastening the day when 150,000 US troops can go home.

While a driving ban seemed to discourage car bombs, the militants improvised, strapping on belts of explosives to launch their suicide missions.

At least 44 died in the suicide and mortar attacks on polling stations, including nine suicide bombers. The al Qaida affiliate led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for at least four attacks.

Most attacks were in Baghdad, but one of the deadliest came in Hillah to the south, when a bomber got on to a minibus carrying voters and detonated his explosives, killing himself and at least four others.

Across the largely authoritarian-ruled Arab world, where dislike and distrust of US power and American intentions dominates the public debate, some dismissed the poll as a US-orchestrated sham. Others hoped it might prove a catalyst for a region-wide democratic push.

Iraq’s elections were a “good omen for getting rid of dictatorship,” said Yemeni political science student Fathi al-Uraiqi.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak – sure to win his own country’s much-less-democratic vote later this year – telephoned Allawi to congratulate him on the smooth election, saying he hoped it would “open the way for the restoration of calm and stability” in Iraq.