LOOK AT THE LINES!
A member Iraqi National Guard stand near villagers villagers queueing to vote for the national polls in a polling precinct in Al Anbar province 23 kilometres west of Baghdad,Iraq (news - web sites) January 30, 2005. A suicide bomber strapped with explosives killed two policemen in the latest attack on polling centres during Sunday's election, police sources said. At least eight suicide bombs exploded outside Baghdad polling stations, killing at least 19 people. Seven of the suicide bombers walked up to the voting stations on foot and one used a car bomb. REUTERS/Erik de Castro
An Iraqi villager raises his arms to show he's not armed during security check while queueing to vote for the national polls in Al Anbar province 23 kilometres west of Baghdad,Iraq (news - web sites) January 30, 2005. A suicide bomber strapped with explosives killed two policemen in the latest attack on polling centres during Sunday's election, police sources said. At least eight suicide bombs exploded outside Baghdad polling stations, killing at least 19 people. Seven of the suicide bombers walked up to the voting stations on foot and one used a car bomb. REUTERS/Erik de Castro
From an AP report......
By HAMZA HENDAWI
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqis voted Sunday in their country's first free election in a half-century and insurgents made good on threats of violence, launching three deadly suicide bombings and mortar strikes at half a dozen polling stations across Iraq. At least 14 people were killed, including five policemen.
Casting his vote, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi called it "the first time the Iraqis will determine their destiny." The country's mostly ceremonial president, Ghazi al-Yawer, said it was Iraq's first step "toward joining the free world."
Despite the heavy attacks, turnout was brisk in some Shiite Muslim and mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods. Even in the small town of Askan in the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad - a mixed Sunni-Shiite area - 20 people waited in line at each of several polling centers. More walked toward the polls.
"This is democracy," said an elderly woman in a black abaya, Karfia Abbasi. She held up a thumb stained with purple ink to prove she had voted.
In a potentially troublesome sign, however, the polls were deserted in heavily Sunni cities like Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra west and north of Baghdad. Sunni extremists, fearing victory by the Shiites, have called for a boycott, claiming no vote held under U.S. military occupation is legitimate.
The governor of the mostly Sunni province of Salaheddin, Hamad Hmoud Shagti, urged voters over the radio: "This is a chance for you as Iraqis to assure your and your children's future."
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I wouldn't expect heavy turnout in Fallujah, not alot of
people have gone back anyway. It'd be more dangerous to have a blue thumb there, I'd think.
From later int same AP story....
A ticket endorsed by the country's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is expected to fare best among the 111 candidate lists. However, no faction is expected to win an outright majority, meaning possibly weeks of political deal-making before a new prime minister is chosen.
END QUOTE
This is the best part - and also the trickiest. The Iraqis themselves will have to make it work, but if they do, they'll all have somehting invested in it together, Sunni, Shia, Kurd, etc.