High turnout in Iraq’s day of voting

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s deeply divided Shias, Sunnis and Kurds voted under heavy guard on Saturday to decide the fate of a new constitution aimed at establishing democracy after more than two decades of Saddam Hussein’s repressive rule.

A day that US and Iraqi leaders feared could turn bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months.

Insurgents attacked five of Baghdad’s 1,200 polling stations with shootings and bombs, wounding seven voters. But the only deaths were those of three Iraqi soldiers in a roadside bomb far from a polling site, and there were no major attacks reported as US and Iraqi forces clamped down with major security measures around balloting sites.

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.

In the south, Shia women in head-to-toe veils and men emerged from the poll stations flashing victory signs with fingers stained with purple ink, apparently responding in mass to the call by their top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, to support the charter.

“Once the constitution is stable, the country will be stable,” Rajaa Mohammed Abbas, a 35-year-old Shia woman, said after voting “yes” in the southern city of Karbala, where crowds of people marched after casting ballots, chanting “yes, yes to the constitution.”

But in Sunni areas in Baghdad and several key heavily Sunni provinces, a surprisingly high turnout in some areas seemed to consist largely of Iraqis voting “no” because of fears the new constitution would mean setting in stone the Shia domination they fear.

The Sunni Arab turnout was a dramatic change from January parliamentary election, which most Sunnis boycotted. Now they were eager to cast ballots, which could make the race tighter than expected.

“This is all wrong. I said ’no’ to a constitution written by the Americans,” said Jilan Shaker, 22, a laborer who showed up at a polling station in Baghdad’s Azamiyah district polling station in shorts and plastic sandals.

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.

A top UN official told The Associated Press that turnout was very high in the predominantly Shia 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.

Voters at the country’s 6,100 polling stations 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, the Iraqis had the forefinger of their right hands marked with violet ink.

A few Sunni leaders called for a “yes” vote after last-minute changes were made in the draft, but most urged their voters to oppose.

When polls closed at 5 p.m., celebratory gunfire was heard in Baghdad. Families handed out sweets to passers-by in the street ahead of the end of the day’s Ramadan fast about an hour later.

Vote counting began immediately. In Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, a handful of men sat around long tables with lanterns, putting “yes” votes in one pile and “no” votes in another.

Baqouba turnout is key because the city is in a province that is majority Sunni but has sizable Shia and Kurdish communities.

There are four provinces where Sunni Arab opponents are hoping to make that threshold: Anbar, Ninevah, Salahuddin and Diyala, all with Sunni majorities. But all of those except Anbar also have significant Shia and Kurdish populations mixed in who the opponents must outweigh to reach two-thirds.

So competition was at its fiercest in those areas, with all sides drumming out voters.

“The government can’t just sew together an outfit and dress the people up by force. We do not see ourselves or see our future in this draft,” said Gazwan Abdul Sattar, 27-year-old Sunni teacher in Mosul after voting “no” in Nivevah’s capital, Mosul.

But in a nearby mostly Kurdish neighborhood of the city, Bahar Saleh gave her support to 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 Salahuddin province, just north of Baghdad, turnout may have been as high as 75 percent, local election officials said. In the Sunni Arab town of Tikrit - Saddam’s birthplace, hundreds rushed to the polls in the last minute to make the closing of polls and get home in time for the breaking of the fast.

But turnout also appeared high in mainly Shia towns and districts elsewhere in the province.

In Baghdad, 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. US 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.

“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 Shia neighborhood of Karrada in Baghdad. “This constitution means unity and hope.”

Sunni turnout high at Iraqi charter vote

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer

http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/front/story/2805811p-11441397c.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Sunni Arabs voted in surprisingly high numbers on Iraq's new constitution Saturday, many of them hoping to defeat it in an intense competition with Shiites and Kurds over the shape of the nation's young democracy after decades of dictatorship. With little violence, turnout was more than 66 percent in the three most crucial provinces.

The constitution still seemed likely to pass, as expected. But the large Sunni turnout made it possible that the vote would be close or even go the other way, and late Saturday it appeared at least two of a required three provinces might reject it by a wide margin.
Washington hopes the constitution will be approved so that Iraqis can form a legitimate, representative government, tame the insurgency and enable the 150,000 U.S. troops to begin to withdraw.

After polls opened at 7 a.m., whole families turned out at voting stations, with parents carrying young children, sometimes in holiday clothes. Men and women lined up by the hundreds in some places or kept up a constant traffic into heavily bunkered polls, dressed in their best in suits and ties or neatly pressed veils - or in shorts and flip-flops, weary from the day's Ramadan fast.

"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," Said Ahmad Fliha said after walking up a hill with the help of a relative and a soldier to a polling site in Haditha, a western Sunni town.

Some 9 million Iraqis cast ballots, election officials said, announcing a preliminary turnout estimate of 61 percent.

In Baghdad, men counted votes by lanterns because the electricity was out in parts of the city. Results were written on a chalkboard. Outside, Iraqi soldiers huddled in a courtyard, breaking their fast. Northeast of the capital, in Baqouba, men sat around long tables, putting "yes" votes in one pile and "no" votes in another.

A day that U.S. and Iraqi leaders feared could become bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months, amid a heavy clampdown by U.S.-Iraqi forces across the country.

Insurgents attacked five of Baghdad's 1,200 polling stations, wounding seven voters, but there were no suicide bombings or other major attacks. Four Iraqi soldiers were reported killed by attacks far from polling sites - compared to the more than 100 attacks that hit January parliamentary elections, killing more than 40 people.

"The constitution is a sign of civilization," Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said after casting his ballot. "This constitution has come after heavy sacrifices. It is a new birth."

The country's Shiite majority - some 60 percent of its estimated 27 million people - and the Kurds - another 20 percent - largely 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 Hussein 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.

Most Sunnis appeared to be voting "no" even after one major party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, came out in support of the draft because last-minute amendments promised Sunnis the chance to try to change the charter later.

"We have entered the political process now because our rights were being usurped by others who have marginalized us," said Sunni Hazem Jassim, 45, referring to Iraq's other factions.

The bar for Sunni opponents to defeat the constitution is high: They must get a two-thirds "no" vote in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces. They were likely to reach that threshold in the vast Sunni heartland of Anbar province in the west. They must snatch the two others among the provinces of Salahuddin, Ninevah or Diyala, north of Baghdad.

By late Saturday, Salahuddin appeared to be nearing a two-thirds "no" vote after an overwhelming showing at the polls in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, where some election officials said 90 percent of the voters cast ballots. There were no figures on Ninevah or Diyala, but those are considered harder for Sunnis to win.

Each of those provinces has a Sunni Arab majority, but they also have significant Shiite or Kurdish minorities. Competition was fierce in all three, with some of the highest turnout rates in the country - well above 66 percent.

In the south, Shiite women in head-to-toe veils and men emerged from the poll stations flashing victory signs with fingers stained with violet ink to show they had voted, apparently responding in mass to the call by their top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to 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.

Voters flowed constantly into a kindergarten used as a polling site in a Sunni Arab district of Mosul, Ninevah's capital.

"The government can't just sew together an outfit and dress the people up by force. We do not see ourselves or see our future in this draft," Gazwan Abdul Sattar, 27-year-old Sunni teacher, said after voting "no."

But in a nearby district, Kurds lined up as well, some decked out in tradition garb of baggy pants and belted vests, or wrapped in the red-and-green Kurdish flag, emblazoned with a yellow sun.

"This document serves the ambitions of the Kurdish nation and we hope then that we will be able to determine our destiny in the future," said Barzan Berwari, a 45-year-old businessman.

In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, voting was intense.

"This constitution was written by people who are loyal to Iran rather than being loyal to Iraq," said Hassan Maajoun, 60, reflecting some Shiites' deep suspicion of Sunni ties to neighboring Iran.

Voting was just as heated in the smaller Shiite towns in the southern part of the province as they raced to stop the Sunnis short.

After placing the ballots in the plastic boxes at the polling centers, Iraqis had the forefinger of their right hands marked with violet ink to prevent repeat voting.

About 250 of the country's 6,100 polling stations, mostly in the north and west, did not open because of technical or security problems, elections officials said.

The polls opened 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. When voting ended 10 hours later, celebratory gunfire rang out in Baghdad streets, and some families handed out sweets to passers-by.

While turnout was high in the mixed areas, Shiites in the south and Kurds in their autonomous enclave in the north showed less enthusiasm, with fewer than 66 percent of voters showing up in most of the provinces in those areas - likely reflecting the feeling that a "yes" vote was a sure bet there. Less than a third of voters in the region around the city of Ameriyah bothered to show up.

Turnout in January's vote was 58 percent, but Sunnis largely boycotted that election while Shiites turned out in droves, celebrating their chance to dominate the new government.

Bush administration officials said they were pleased that Iraqis appeared peaceful and enthusiastic about exercising their right to vote.

"Today's vote deals a severe blow to the ambitions of the terrorists and sends a clear message to the world that the people of Iraq will decide the future of their country through peaceful elections, not violent insurgency," White House spokesman Allen Abney said.

Whether the charter passes or fails, Sunnis appeared to throw themselves wholeheartedly into a political process that until now they have been deeply suspicious of. That could indicate they will try more in the future to work within a system U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope can moderate the country's vicious sectarian divisions.

But if the constitution passes despite a significant Sunni "no" vote, hard-liners in the community could decide the insurgency is their only hope to retain influence in the country.

In the Sunni Anbar province, streets and polling stations in towns strung along the Euphrates River valley were largely empty as residents remained hunkered in their homes, fearing insurgent violence or so embittered they refused to vote.

The minimal turnout in Anbar - as in the January election - suggested the key battleground between U.S.-Iraqi forces and insurgents, would remain alienated from the political process.

But voting was not along sectarian lines everywhere.

In Sadr City, a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad controlled by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition last year, people were widely expected to vote "yes."

Not Haitham Aouda Abdul-Nabi, a 23-year-old co-owner of a convenience store. When he showed up at a Sadr City secondary school to vote, he said: "More than 90 percent of Iraq's Shiites support the constitution, but not me."

Why? Because he is tired of the chaos that has followed Saddam's ouster: killings by insurgents, fighting between rebels and U.S. troops, squabbling in Iraq's mostly Shiite and Kurdish government, and nearly daily power outages in the capital.

"Only force can bring results with a people like us in Iraq," he said. "Unfortunately, we need someone like Saddam. This government is too weak."

This voting process regardless of how it turns out, has done something many folks have eluded to mention in their very good post for a time being. Hardly a detractor in this thread. What has not been mentioned is the fact, look at those pictures, is these people where happy, full of spirit, determined to cast their PERSONAL OPINION. As many of our Fr's posted, they braved the chance of getting gunned down or blown up. But they went to the voting polls. SUCH A HUGE TURNOUT, probably higher then most any nations with a democratic system. And under such conditions in some areas. We may tend to forget, and this is assuming the total Anti-Iraqi insurgency in all its forms, could have tried very hard to cause sensational killing fields in less protected areas, such as the 14 provinces that are Shi'ite dominated, just to cause super strife amoung the masses. It did not happen. The insurgency in all it's forms was 98% or better closed down. They had absolutely no effect on the voting process. AND based on what I am reading. It appears only the Al Anbar province that is in many areas is very low population density other then the large towns/cities along the Euphrates and say a city such as Rutbah in the far north western area of Al Anbar, turned out in record numbers. This is of epic proportions. It superseeds what we saw in Afganhistain by quite a bit. It appears this truly may show the future of Iraq. Democratically elected government that will provide a method of governance that will be for the betterment of all Iraqis.
Folks it appears the message to the Saddamist and foriegn insurgents is:
Mene Mene Tekel..........loosely interpretated:
'It has been counted and counted, weighed and divided' And my added emphasize, the Iraqi insurgency is found wanting. This is the horror story Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has written about in the past, as being the straw that will break the back of the insurgency, and Islamofacists dreams of somehow turning Iraqi into the staging grounds for a pure theocracy that can herald in a Caliphate. Seems like the gig is up for Abu and Binny boy.

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