Posted on 10/15/2005 9:55:38 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Polls Close for Vote on Iraq Constitution
Staff and agencies
15 October, 2005
By HAMZA HENDAWI, 21 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq 's deeply divided Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds voted on a new constitution at heavily guarded polling stations Saturday in a referendum largely free of insurgent violence and aimed at establishing democracy after decades of Saddam Hussein 's repressive rule. But in Sunni regions — both in Baghdad and several key heavily Sunni provinces — the surprisingly high turnout seemed to consist largely of Iraqis voting "no" because of fears the charter would set in stone the Shiite domination they fear.
A day that U.S. and Iraqi leaders feared could turn bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months.
The United States hopes the constitution will be approved so Iraqis can form a permanent, representative government and secure the country so Washington can start withdrawing its 150,000 troops. The Bush administration also sees success in the election as key to defeating the Sunni-led insurgency.
"This weekend's election is a critical step forward in Iraq's march toward democracy, and with each step the Iraqi people take, al-Qaida's vision for the region becomes more remote," President Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday.
A top U.N. official told The Associated Press that turnout was very high in the predominantly Shiite Muslim south but low in the mostly Sunni Arab western province of Anbar, where insurgents are active. Carina Perelli, director of the Electoral Assistance Division of the United Nations , also said voter turnout was very steady in many other mostly Sunni regions, which boycotted legislative elections in January.
The Sunni Arab turnout was a dramatic change from January's parliamentary election, which most Sunnis boycotted. Now they were eager to cast ballots.
In the crucial northern city of Mosul, there was a constant flow of voters all day long into a kindergarten in a Sunni Arab neighborhood: men and women, dressed at their best in suits and ties or neatly pressed veils, many carrying young children in holiday clothes.
As polls closed at 5 p.m., many rounds of gunfire were heard in celebration and people were seen in some streets of Baghdad handing out sweets ahead of the end of the day's Ramadan fast.
In Baghdad, men counted votes by lanterns because the electricity was out. Results were written on a chalkboard. Outside, Iraqi soldiers huddled in a courtyard, breaking their fast.
Baqouba turnout is key because the city is in a province that is majority Sunni but has sizable Shiite and Kurdish communities. Sunni leaders have sent mixed signals about whether to support the charter.
The draft constitution can be defeated by either a simple majority or if two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces cast ballots against it. Rejection would be difficult because most of the majority Shiites and Kurds support the charter.
In a mostly Kurdish neighborhood of Mosul, Bahar Saleh supported the constitution.
"This constitution will at last give the Kurds their lost rights," the 34-year-old housewife said, coming from the polls with the red-and-green Kurdish flag wrapped around her body.
In the south, the heartland of Iraq's Shiites, some Shiite cities reported a higher turnout than the January vote. Top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had urged his followers to turn out and support the charter.
"Today, I came to vote because I am tired of terrorists, and I want the country to be safe again," said Zeinab Sahib, a 30-year-old mother of three, one of the first voters at a school in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Karrada in Baghdad.
"This constitution means unity and hope."
American troops in Humvees rattled down Baghdad streets in patrols, while Iraqi soldiers and police ringed polling stations at schools and other public buildings protected by concrete barriers and barbed wire.
Iraqi soldiers armed with heavy machine guns looked over polling sites from nearby rooftops. U.S. troops in tanks and armored vehicles stood not far away as helicopters hovered overhead. Driving was banned to stop suicide car bombings by Sunni-led insurgents determined to wreck the vote.
The polls opened at 7 a.m., just hours after government workers restored power lines that insurgents sabotaged in the north Friday night, plunging the Iraqi capital and surrounding areas into darkness.
In the central Baghdad area of Khulani, where Sunnis and Shiites both live, a steady stream of voters entered a large polling station after being searched three times.
They included old men and women who could barely walk with canes, and young mothers wearing chadors and carrying infants. Other voters wore baggy traditional Kurdish dresses, and some youths were dressed in jeans. Within three hours of voting starting, at least a quarter of registered voters cast ballots in Baghdad's biggest Sunni Arab district, Azamiyah, where in January hardly a soul was seen in the January vote.
In Baghdad, President Jalal Talabani and al-Jaafari were shown live on Al-Iraqiya television voting in a hall in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where parliament and the U.S. Embassy are based.
"The constitution will pave the way for a national unity," al-Jaafari said. "I am optimistic that the Iraqis will say yes.'
At Iraq's approximately 6,100 polling stations, voters marked their paper ballot "yes" or "no" under one question, written in Arabic and Kurdish: "Do you agree on the permanent constitution project?"
After placing the ballots in the plastic boxes at the polling centers, the Iraqis had the forefinger of their right hands marked with violet ink to prevent repeat voting.
The country's Shiite majority — some 60 percent of its estimated 27 million people — and the Kurds — another 20 percent — support the approximately 140-article charter, which provides them with autonomy in the northern and southern regions where they are concentrated.
The Sunni Arab minority, which dominated the country under Saddam and forms the backbone of the insurgency, widely opposes the draft, convinced its federalist system will tear the country into Shiite and Kurdish mini-states in the south and north, leaving Sunnis in an impoverished center.
Many of them believe the document does not sufficiently support Iraq's Arab character.
Last-minute amendments to the constitution, adopted Wednesday, promise Sunnis the chance to try to change the charter more deeply later, prompting one Sunni Arab group — the Iraqi Islamic Party — to support the draft. Most others reject it.
There are four provinces where Sunni Arab opponents hope to galvanize opposition to the charter: Anbar, Ninevah, Salahuddin and Diyala, all with Sunni majorities. But all of those except Anbar also have significant Shiite and Kurdish populations mixed in.
Competition was at its fiercest in those areas. In the Salahuddin town of Tikrit, which is overwhelmingly Sunni Arab, some 17,000 voters turned out by noon.
But turnout also appeared high in mainly Shiite towns and districts elsewhere in the province.
"I believe this constitution will secure women on a lot of issues and will give them a good representation in the National Assembly," Muna Ali said.
In much of the vastly Sunni Arab Anbar province — the main battlefield between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi troops — residents remained huddled in their homes. Few voted, either because they feared militant reprisals or were too bitter about the constitution to participate. Ramadi, Anbar's capital, looked like a ghost town, with empty streets. At the hour polls opened, insurgents clashed with U.S. troops in the downtown streets.
Only about 70 people had voted in the Anbar town of Haditha, northwest of Baghdad, by midday. Said Ahmad Fliha walked up the hill to the fortified polling station with the help of a relative and Iraqi soldier.
"I'm 75 years old. Everything is finished for me. But I'm going to vote because I want a good future for my children," Fliha said.
Yikes. I heard that all it takes is 3 provinces with a 2/3 NO vote and the Constitution is defeated.
Can this happen?
"And once again, the Sunnis cut themselves out of democracy by failing to understand how it works."
They understand. They understand that when it works, they lose. They are the core of Saddam's thug league, core of al Qaeda.
Phuqum.
CNN had a baghdad polling station on this morning, it was 3:1 YES!!!
Yes, but it would be quite a hat trick for the Sunni's to pull off.
Dilaya,Salahudin,Ninevah,and Anbar are the provinces the Sunni's hope to get the 2/3 No vote in.All but Anbar have substantial Shite and Kurd populations.The Kurds and Shia will vote Yes, so it's problematic for the Sunni's,at best.
Seriously,nclee,it's looks like a great day for freedom! :)
meyers
That's good to hear.
Yes, let's hope this day is seared, seared into her memory. And John Kerry's. And Bahbra's. And Susan Sarandon's. And Alex Baldwin's. And Bruce Sprungsteen's. And Jesse Jackson's. And Chuckles Schumer's. And...
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