[Marxism] Al Jazeera: vote in Iraq peaceful

[Jeffrey Thomas Piercy <mqduck@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200913122502669508.html

Iraq poll counting started

Counting is under way in Iraq after millions of voters cast ballots for 
influential regional councils around most of the country.

The elections on Saturday were hailed by Barack Obama, the US president, 
as an important step towards Iraqis taking responsibility for their future.

"I congratulate the people of Iraq on holding significant provincial 
elections today," Obama said in a statement on Saturday.

He said the United States was proud to have provided technical 
assistance to the electorial commission, "which performed professionally 
under difficult circumstances."

The polls, seen as a test of the security situation in Iraq, closed at 
6pm (1500GMT) following an hour's extension by electoral authorities 
aimed at giving more Iraqis the opportunity to vote.

Except for a few stray incidents, officials said the elections went 
peacefully.

Police said three mortar shells landed in Tikrit after polling stations 
opened. No casualties were reported, but a vehicle was reportedly set on 
fire.

'A victory'

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, called the polls "a victory 
for all the Iraqis," after casting his ballot in the highly fortified 
Green Zone in Baghdad.

Voters were searched as they went to the polls
amid high security [Reuters]

Counting is under way in Iraq after millions of voters cast ballots for 
influential regional councils around most of the country.

The elections on Saturday were hailed by Barack Obama, the US president, 
as an important step towards Iraqis taking responsibility for their future.

"I congratulate the people of Iraq on holding significant provincial 
elections today," Obama said in a statement on Saturday.

He said the United States was proud to have provided technical 
assistance to the electorial commission, "which performed professionally 
under difficult circumstances."

The polls, seen as a test of the security situation in Iraq, closed at 
6pm (1500GMT) following an hour's extension by electoral authorities 
aimed at giving more Iraqis the opportunity to vote.

Except for a few stray incidents, officials said the elections went 
peacefully.

Police said three mortar shells landed in Tikrit after polling stations 
opened. No casualties were reported, but a vehicle was reportedly set on 
fire.

'A victory'

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, called the polls "a victory 
for all the Iraqis," after casting his ballot in the highly fortified 
Green Zone in Baghdad.

He said an expected high turnout will be an indicator of "the Iraqi 
people's trust in their government and in the elections" and "proof that 
the Iraqi people are now living in real security."

Initial results from the elections are to be released next week, Faraj 
al-Haydari, the electoral commission chief, said.

"The preliminary results will be known next week but the final results 
will only be known in several weeks because it's a new and complex 
electoral system,"

About 15 million Iraqis were eligible to vote in the polls, held in 14 
of Iraq's 18 provinces.

High turnout

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Iraq, described the voters 
turnout as "heavy" but declined to provide exact figures until Sunday.

More than 14,000 candidates, 4,000 of them women, competed for 440 seats.

Iraq's provincial councils are responsible for nominating the governors 
who lead the administration, and oversee finance and reconstruction 
projects. They control a combined budget of $2.4bn.

"I hope that the results will lead to new provincial councils that work 
for the interests of citizens," Hashem Karim, a voter waiting in a queue 
at a polling station in Nasiriyah, said.

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught, reporting earlier in the day from a polling 
station in Irbil, in northern Iraq, said voting was going smoothly.

"Reports we're getting from the rest of the country indicate that pretty 
much things are going well. There hasn't been an uptake in violence, as 
people were fearing," she said.

"One interesting bit of news coming through -  we've heard that Iraqi 
security forces have intercepted some boxes of fraudulent votes they 
found being taken into the Salahuddin province region, near the area of 
Tikrit."

The UN monitored the polls [AFP]
Elections are not taking place in the three autonomous Kurdish 
provinces, Irbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah, until later in the year.

Polls in the oil-rich Kirkuk province, which the Kurds want to 
incorporate into their region despite fierce opposition by the central 
government, have also been postponed indefinitely.

Fears of attacks

The killing of three Sunni Arabs candidates on Thursday, and that of a 
Shia politician two weeks earlier, had raised fears of violence on 
election day.

Iraqi and US military commanders in recent days also warned that 
al-Qaeda poses a threat to the elections, and the US military said it 
was sending heavy deployments of troops onto the streets during the voting.

Hundreds of women, including teachers and civic workers, have been 
recruited to search female voters after a rise in female suicide bombers 
last year.

Almost 300,000 local and international observers monitored the elections.

Campaign rules prohibited the use of government resources and gifts to 
voters, and restricted the use of religious symbols.

The independent electoral commission said it had received very few 
complaints about attempts of vote buying, but the issue has become a 
talking point among Iraqis.

Qassim al-Aboudi, a representative of the electoral commission, said it 
had fined three political lists for campaign violations, but he declined 
to identify them or their misdemeanours.

"We received very few reports about attempts to buy votes and we will 
take action against these parties," he said.

In a Baghdad park this week, a leading Shia party distributed blankets 
with a pamphlet inserted in the folds instructing voters which 
candidates to choose.

Other parties have reportedly given out watches to win favour, and in 
one case, equipped a teenage football team with uniforms.

Elections are not taking place in the three autonomous Kurdish 
provinces, Irbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah, until later in the year.

Polls in the oil-rich Kirkuk province, which the Kurds want to 
incorporate into their region despite fierce opposition by the central 
government, have also been postponed indefinitely.

Fears of attacks

The killing of three Sunni Arabs candidates on Thursday, and that of a 
Shia politician two weeks earlier, had raised fears of violence on 
election day.

Iraqi and US military commanders in recent days also warned that 
al-Qaeda poses a threat to the elections, and the US military said it 
was sending heavy deployments of troops onto the streets during the voting.

Hundreds of women, including teachers and civic workers, have been 
recruited to search female voters after a rise in female suicide bombers 
last year.

Almost 300,000 local and international observers monitored the elections.

Campaign rules prohibited the use of government resources and gifts to 
voters, and restricted the use of religious symbols.

The independent electoral commission said it had received very few 
complaints about attempts of vote buying, but the issue has become a 
talking point among Iraqis.

Qassim al-Aboudi, a representative of the electoral commission, said it 
had fined three political lists for campaign violations, but he declined 
to identify them or their misdemeanours.

"We received very few reports about attempts to buy votes and we will 
take action against these parties," he said.

In a Baghdad park this week, a leading Shia party distributed blankets 
with a pamphlet inserted in the folds instructing voters which 
candidates to choose.

Other parties have reportedly given out watches to win favour, and in 
one case, equipped a teenage football team with uniforms.

-- 
Human: An animal so lost in loathing contemplation of what it thinks it 
is as to overlook what it ought to be.

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