Iraqis go to the polls

Iraqis went to cast their vote for a new government today as polling stations opened amid huge security.

A large explosion was head in downtown Baghdad within minutes of the polls opening and sirens could be heard inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone where the Iraqi government and the US and British embassies are located.

Police said the explosion was reportedly caused by a mortar landing near the Green Zone. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.

At a polling station at Baghdad city hall in the capital’s Khulani neighbourhood, police searched each person entering the polling station. To reach the station, people were searched at three separate checkpoints and dozens of people were standing waiting to vote.

“The first voting process to choose a parliament with a four-year term in Iraq has started and all the voting centres in Iraq have opened,” Abdul-Husein Hendawi, a senior official with the election commission, said.

He said some polling stations in the town of Ramadi, a militant stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad, had not yet opened for security reasons.

Among the first Iraqis to vote was Jalal Talabani, Iraq’s first Kurdish president, who cast his ballot in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.

“This is a good day and the Iraqi people bear the responsibility to vote for a better future. I hope that the Iraqi people will stay united. We hope that the people will vote to keep the constitution that was approved by the Iraqi people,” he said.

Outside Baghdad city hall, Abbasiya Ahmad, 80, said she had voted for the governing Shiite United Iraqi Alliance.

“We hope that they will bring us security and safety. Also they are clerics, and clerics do not steal our money. We want people who protect our money,” she said.

Another voter said he preferred former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite running on a platform calling for national reconciliation.

“I am very happy that I voted today and I hope that these elections will bring stability to the country,” the 64-year-old retired civil servant said.

At the Arab Banner school in downtown Karradah, Saleh Hadi, a 71-year-old car mechanic who is married with eight children, said that “this is what Iraqis want: democracy, God willing, glory and peace”.