Iraqis begin voting abroad

Iraqis living abroad began voting today and election officials expressed satisfaction that early polling by soldiers, patients and prisoners was carried out around the country without a hitch.

Political parties began a final round of rallies in Baghdad today, one day before campaigning was to stop around the country to give Iraqis time to reflect ahead of Thursday’s elections.

“Elections have started abroad,” Ali al-Lami, executive director of the Iraqi Electoral Commission said. “We had a good turnout in the hospitals, military camps and prisons.”

He said there had been just 135 complaints during yesterday’s vote when about 250,000 eligible Iraqis cast ballots. He said 60 problems had been dealt with.

Voting abroad began first in Australia, where there are up to 20,000 registered Iraqi voters live. They are part of a group of 1.5 million voters living outside Iraq who will cast ballots at polling centres in 15 countries, including the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. Overseas voting ends on Thursday.

Al-Lami appealed for peace on Thursday, when about 15 million people will be called on to vote in more than 6,200 polling stations around the country.

“Violence has no place in any democratic elections. This is a time for national reconciliation though the political process,” al-Lami said.

Insurgents denounced the balloting as a “satanic project” but have not threatened to attack polling stations.

US President George Bush offered encouraging words from Washington to Iraqi voters but cautioned that the parliamentary elections “won’t be perfect".

“Iraqis still have more difficult work ahead, and our coalition and a new Iraqi government will face many challenges,” Bush said yesterday in a speech in Philadelphia.

In a rare joint statement, Al Qaida in Iraq and four other Islamic extremist groups denounced the election as a “satanic project” and said that “to engage in the so-called political process” violates “the legitimate policy approved by God.”

The groups vowed to “continue our jihad (holy war) ... to establish an Islamic state ruled by the book (the Koran) and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.”

However, the statement contained no clear threat to disrupt voting as in the run-up to the January 30 election for an interim parliament and the October 15 referendum on the constitution.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it appeared on a website that often publishes extremist material.

The absence of a clear-cut threat could reflect the growing interest among Sunni Arabs, the foundation of the insurgency, to take part in the election. The Sunni decision to boycott the January ballot left parliament in the hands of Shiites and Kurds – a move which increased communal friction and cost the Sunnis considerable influence in drafting the constitution.

A leaflet that appeared yesterday in the Baghdad Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah acknowledged that Sunni Arabs could make gains in the election but that “fighting will continue with the infidels and their followers.”

The statement was unsigned but was written in a style favoured by Islamic extremists.

US officials hope for a large turnout among the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, a development which could produce a government capable of winning the trust of the Sunnis and defusing the insurgency. That would enable US and other foreign troops to begin heading home next year.

“Many Sunnis are campaigning vigorously for office this time around,” Bush said. “Many Sunni parties that opposed the constitution have registered to compete in this week’s vote.”

Sunni Arab politicians have promised an end to what they term abuse at the hands of the Shiite-dominated security services.

As voting began, the Human Rights Ministry and the US military said that 13 prisoners were taken to hospital after being found at an overcrowded prison run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry.

Al-Jazeera television aired a video allegedly showing abuse at another Interior Ministry facility in western Baghdad. The footage showed dozens of men, many with welts and bruises. The station did not say how it obtained the footage or when the alleged incidents took place.

Bush said Iraqi prisoners held in secret detention centres apparently were beaten and tortured.

“This conduct is unacceptable,” Bush said. “Those who committed these crimes must be held to account.”

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, ordered an investigation into what he described as an “unhealthy phenomenon.” A similar case also surfaced last month.

“I will not allow such treatment of any prisoner,” al-Jaafari said during a news conference.