Iraq to close borders to curb election violence

The Iraqi government announced today it will close all borders, extend curfew hours and ban travel across provincial borders as part of stringent security measures to protect voters during this week’s parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, assailants blew up an electoral centre in a town 12 miles south of Samarra and opened fire on a Turkoman political party office in Mosul, wounding three people, police said.

In Najaf, the country’s leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged followers to turn out in large numbers for the Thursday balloting, in which voters will choose a 275-member parliament to serve a full four-year term.

But al-Sistani stopped short of openly endorsing the coalition of religious Shiite parties which swept the largest number of seats in the January election.

The Interior Ministry said the emergency measures will take effect early Tuesday and last until Saturday morning. The night-time curfew will be extended by three hours, all international borders and airports will be closed and travel across provincial boundaries will be banned.

Additional forces have been sent to Ramadi and other insurgent trouble-spots to bolster security, the ministry said.

“We are very prepared for the elections and we are highly determined,” Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told reporters.

The election will be the first under the new constitution ratified in a referendum on October 15 and will complete the steps toward democratisation in Iraq following the ousting of Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 2003 US-led invasion.

US officials hope that establishment of a broad-based constitutional government will help calm the Sunni Arab-led insurgency and allow the US and its coalition partners to begin drawing down troops next year.

The Americans are hoping for a strong turnout among Sunni Arabs, the community at the foundation of the insurgency. Many Sunnis boycotted the January election, sharpening communal tensions and fuelling the insurgency.

However, US commanders have also warned that the insurgency remains a threat to the new Iraqi government and that the reduction of coalition forces can take place only when Iraq’s army and police are ready.

The US command announced today that an American soldier was killed by a roadside bombing in Baghdad. The soldier was the seventh US trooper to be killed in the Baghdad area since Thursday.

In Sulaimaniyah, President Jalal Talabani predicted that no party will win a clear-cut victory Thursday, forcing a coalition government such as the one currently in power.

A coalition of Shiite religious parties is expected to win the biggest bloc of seats again on Thursday but probably fall short of the number they hold in the current parliament. Most Sunni Arabs boycotted the January election, but this time a number of Sunnis are in the race and are expected to win a strong bloc.