Iraqis Defy Threats to Vote for Assembly

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis embraced democracy in large numbers Sunday, standing in long lines to vote in defiance of mortar attacks, suicide bombers and boycott calls. Pushed in wheelchairs or carts if they couldn't walk, the elderly, the young and women in veils cast ballots in Iraq (news - web sites)'s first free election in a half-century.

Iraqi election officials said it might take 10 days to determine the vote's winner and said they had no firm estimate of turnout among the 14 million eligible voters. The ticket endorsed by the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was the pre-voting favorite. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's slate was also considered strong.

Uncertain Sunni turnout, a string of insurgent attacks that killed 44 and the crash of a British military plane drove home that chaos in Iraq isn't over yet.

Yet the mere fact the vote went off seemed to ricochet instantly around a world hoping for Arab democracy and fearing Islamic extremism.

"I am doing this because I love my country, and I love the sons of my nation," said Shamal Hekeib, 53, who walked with his wife 20 minutes to a polling station near his Baghdad home.

With helicopters flying low and gunfire close by, at least 200 voters stood calmly in line at midday outside one polling station in the heart of Baghdad. Inside, the tight security included at least four body searches, and a ban on lighters, cell phone batteries, cigarette packs and even pens.

The feeling was sometimes festive. One election volunteer escorted a blind man back to his home after he cast his vote. A woman too frail to walk by herself arrived on a cart pushed by a young relative. Entire families showed up in their finest clothes.

But for the country's minority Sunni Arabs, who held a privileged position under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the day was not as welcome.

No more than 400 people voted in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and in the heavily Sunni northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah, where Saddam made his last known public appearance in early April 2003, the four polling places never even opened.

"The world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," said President Bush (news - web sites), who called the election a success. He promised the United States would continue training Iraqi soldiers, hoping they can soon secure a country America invaded nearly two years ago to topple Saddam.

Iraqis, the U.S. president said, had "firmly rejected the anti-democratic ideology" of terrorists.

The vote to elect a 275-National Assembly and 18 provincial legislatures was only the first step on Iraq's road to self-rule and stability. Once results are in, it could take weeks of backroom deals before a prime minister and government are picked by the new assembly.

If that government proves successful by drawing in the minority Sunni Arabs who partly shunned the election, the country could stabilize, hastening the day when 150,000 U.S. troops can go home.

Iraqi interior minister, Falah al-Naqib, told Britain's Channel 4 News he expected there would be no need for U.S. troops any longer than 18 months because that's when he anticipates Iraq's security forces will be trained well enough to handle the job themselves.

But in comments to CBS' "Face The Nation," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) would not say whether U.S. forces would leave the country in great numbers now that the vote is complete, and Bush did not mention any U.S. military withdrawals in his statement.

On Sunday, coalition soldiers raced through Baghdad's streets in Humvees and tried to coax people to vote with loudspeakers in Ramadi, a Sunni city where anti-U.S. attacks are frequent. Iraqi police served as guards at most polling stations and U.S. troops had strict orders to stay away unless Iraqi security forces called for help.

At the Louisiana National Guard headquarters near Baghdad, nervous U.S. officers paced the halls, muttering, "So far, so good," after the first 30 minutes of polling passed without attacks.

While a driving ban seemed to discourage car bombs, the insurgents improvised, strapping on belts of explosives to launch their suicide missions.

At least 44 died in the suicide and mortar attacks on polling stations, including nine suicide bombers. The al-Qaida affiliate led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for at least four attacks.

Most attacks were in Baghdad, but one of the deadliest came in Hillah to the south, when a bomber got onto a minibus carrying voters and detonated his explosives, killing himself and at least four others.

In another reminder of the dangers that persist in Iraq, a British C-130 Hercules transport plane crashed north of Baghdad. The wreckage was strewn over a large area. No cause was given, but Britain's Press Association, quoting military sources, said about 10 British troops were believed to have died. Elsewhere, one U.S. serviceman died in fighting in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Despite the string of attacks and mortars that boomed first in the morning and then after dark, a people steeled to violence by years of war, sanctions, the brutality of Saddam's regime and U.S. military occupation were not deterred from the polls.

In the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, a whiskery, stooped Abed Hunni walked an hour with his wife to reach a polling site in Musayyib. "God is generous to give us this day," he said.

And in heavily Shiite areas in the far south and mostly Kurdish regions in the north, some saw the vote as settling a score with the former dictator, Saddam.

"Now I feel that Saddam is really gone," said Fatima Ibrahim, smiling as she headed home after voting in Irbil. She was 14 and a bride of just three months when her husband, father and brother were rounded up in a campaign of ethnic cleansing under Saddam. None have ever been found.

Many cities in the Sunni triangle north and west of the capital, particularly Fallujah, Ramadi and Beiji, were virtually empty of voters also.

A low Sunni turnout, if that turns out to be the case, could undermine the new government that will emerge from the vote and worsen tensions among the country's ethnic, religious and cultural groups.

Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni elder statesman and candidate for the National Assembly, said he believes the best hope for harmony lies in giving Sunnis a significant role in drafting the country's new constitution.

"The main thing, I think, is we should really have a constitution written by representatives of all segments of Iraq's population," Pachachi said. "I think it would improve the security situation."

Across the largely authoritarian-ruled Arab world, where dislike and distrust of U.S. power and American intentions dominates the public debate, some dismissed the poll as a U.S.-orchestrated sham. Others hoped it might prove a catalyst for a region-wide democratic push.

Iraq's elections are a "good omen for getting rid of dictatorship," said Yemeni political science student Fathi al-Uraiqi.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) — sure to win his own country's much-less-democratic vote later this year — telephoned Allawi to congratulate him on the smooth election, saying he hoped it would "open the way for the restoration of calm and stability" in Iraq.

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Hamza Hendawi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Jason Keyser contributed to this report.

AFP: Bush calls Iraq elections 'resounding success'; predicts more violence

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/iraqvoteus

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) hailed Iraq (news - web sites)'s first free elections in half a century Sunday as a "resounding success" but warned they would not stop the campaign of violence by insurgents.

And while praising the Iraqi voters and security forces for keeping the vote relatively smooth, the administration again refused to provide a timetable for the withdrawal of some 150,000 US troops.

Bush had a lot riding politically and diplomatically on the elections, which went ahead despite bloodshed and intimidation by insurgents battling on nearly two years after the US-led invasion.

Although the results of the vote for a national assembly will not be known for weeks, Bush basked in reports of a high turnout throughout most of Iraq despite attacks that killed at least 37 people.

"Today the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," the president said in brief remarks at the White House.

He called the vote a "great and historic achievement" and said, "The Iraqi people themselves made this election a resounding success."

With Iraqi officials estimating that nearly 60 percent of the 14 million eligible voters had turned out, Bush called the polls a victory over the bloody scare tactics of the insurgents. But he forecast the violence would continue.

"Terrorists and insurgents will continue to wage their war against democracy, and we will support the Iraqi people in their fight against them," he vowed.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said in a round of interviews on US television that the turnout had been "better than expected" even if some voters had been kept away by the violence that was rampant in Sunni areas.

Rice said the polls represented "a huge step forward" for the country's transition to democracy.

"The people have taken a very important step in losing the sense of fear and intimidation that has been in their lives for decades under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)," Rice told CBS News.

The chief US diplomat cautioned, however, that the Iraqis still had "many, many difficult days ahead" as the assembly forms a new government, drafts a constitution and prepares for new polls in December.

Rice said the key was now to build up local security forces.

"We have to get to a point where this is Iraq's fight for Iraq, the fight of Iraqis for their own freedom. And I think you're seeing that today."

But Rice sidestepped a question about when US troops would start to withdraw, insisting that they were in Iraq on a UN mandate and their mission was vital to US security interests as well.

"We have to finish the work here. We have to achieve the mission," she told Fox, adding on CNN: "I really believe that we should not try and put artificial timetables on this."

Rice played down the likely low turnout among the minority Sunnis, insisting it was because of the violence and threats and not a call by the largest Sunni political group for a boycott of the poll.

But she also said it would be up to the Shiite majority, expected to win the election handily, to reach out to the Sunnis during the formation of a new government and the drafting of a constitution.

Meanwhile in a telephone interview with CNN, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said tyranny had been conquered with the historic poll.

"I hope we will build upon it, really build the first functioning democracy in the heart of the Islamic Middle East," Salih said.

"We are very proud indeed of our military and security units," the Iraqi minister said, adding, however, that it was too early to talk of a possible US troop withdrawl "at this stage."

Leading Democratic Party critics of Bush's Iraq policy cautiously welcomed the successful staging of the elections and distanced themselves from calls for the start of an immediate US troop withdrawal.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (news - web sites), who lost the November presidential election against Bush, described the elections as "significant" but said they should not be "overhyped."

Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, whose name has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008, called the vote a "great day for democracy" but said it was only one step in "a long and difficult process."

Kerry, Bayh and another influential Democrat, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, all rejected a call by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy for an immediate withdrawal of 12,000 American troops.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) appealed to Iraqis for reconciliation "on all sides" following the poll, Annan spoke on the sidelines of an African Union summit in the Nigerian capital.

"The success of the election augurs well for the transition process," Annan said in a statement, referring to the political road to come.

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