Iraqi voters face tight security measures

Violence was light but security heavy today as Iraqis voted for a new parliament that many hope brings a bigger political stake for the Sunni Arab minority blamed for the much of the insurgency.

Officials said most polling centres nationwide opened on time – something that could make Sunni turnout heavier.

A number of explosions caused by mortar fire were heard around Baghdad by late morning, including a large one near the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and US Embassy, within minutes of polls opening.

One that landed near a polling station north of Baghdad injured a young girl, police said.

In northern Mosul, where nearly all polling stations opened, a bomb killed a hospital guard and injured two other people when it went off between a polling station and a hospital, Bahaaldin al-Bakri, a doctor at al-Jumhouri hospital, said.

A mortar also landed near a polling station without causing any injuries, initial US military reports said.

The violence underscored security concerns despite a promise by Sunni insurgent groups not to attack the polls.

A coalition of Shiite religious parties, which dominate the current government, was expected to win the largest number of seats – but not enough to form a new administration without alliances with rival groups.

Dozens of Iraqis waiting to cast ballots at Baghdad’s city hall went through three separate checkpoints as police searched each person entering the site.

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.

Senior election official Abdul-Husein Hendawi said some polling stations in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad, had not yet opened for security reasons.

But, he said, voting was largely under way without problems elsewhere in the restive Anbar province, including nearby Fallujah, where the US military said a bomb had been found and defused at a polling station.

The Bush administration hopes the new parliament will include more Sunni Arabs to help establish a government that can lure other Sunnis away from the insurgency. Such a development would make it possible for the US and its partners to start to withdraw their troops next year.

In Baghdad’s predominantly Sunni Arab Azamiyah district and at the al-Nu’aman school, security was tight and the street on either side of the building was blocked with cement blocks and razor wire.

People were arriving in small numbers. Women were not allowed to take their bags inside the centre and mobile phones were banned.

Voters at the station had little enthusiasm for the Shiite coalition that has governed the country since April 28. In January, few people in Azamiyah voted and some polling stations didn’t even open.

“We want to choose Sunni candidates. We want them to be in power because they are capable of providing security and they do not kill or beat us,” said Khali Ibrahim, 70, as he hobbled up the stairs leaning on his cane.

His comments reflected the sectarian tensions that threaten the nation’s future and the Bush administration strategy amid Sunni complaints of abuse at the hands of Shiite-dominated security forces.

Up to 15 million Iraqis were to choose 275 members of the new parliament from among 7,655 candidates running on 996 tickets, representing Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish, Turkmen and sectarian interests across a wide political spectrum.

Iraqis do not vote for individual candidates, but instead for lists – or tickets - that compete for the seats in each of the 18 provinces.

Some preliminary returns were expected late today, but final returns could take days if not weeks.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, 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.

Election of the new parliament, which will serve a four-year term, marks the final step in the US blueprint for democracy. The vote will cap a process that included the transfer of sovereignty last year, selection of an interim parliament on January 30 and ratification of the constitution in October.

The new parliament will name a government, including a new prime minister.

“In spite of the violence, Iraqis have met every milestone,” US President George Bush said in Washington.

For the Bush administration, the stakes are nearly as high as for the Iraqis. A successful election would represent a much-needed political victory at a time of growing doubts about the war among the American public.

“We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of a brutal dictator,” Bush said. “It is to leave a free and democratic Iraq in its place.”

Insurgent threats and boycott calls kept many Sunnis at home in the January election despite a national turnout of nearly 60%. That enabled Shiites and Kurds to dominate the current legislature, sharpening communal tensions and fuelling the insurgency.

This time, more Sunnis Arabs were in the race and changes in the election law to allocate the majority of seats by district all but guaranteed strong Sunni representation.

More than 1,000 Sunni clerics called on their followers to vote, and insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq and the Islamic Army in Iraq, pledged not to attack polling stations even though they oppose the political process.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police were guarding polling stations, with US and other coalition forces standing ready in case of trouble. US troops and bomb-detecting dogs checked thousands of polling stations before handing over control to Iraqi police.

US officials warned that a successful election alone will not end the insurgency. Also needed is a government capable of reconciling Iraq’s disparate groups.

The Americans also were eager to avoid protracted negotiations to choose a new prime minister and cabinet, a process that dragged on for three months after the last vote.