Voting kicks off in Iraq poll

BAGHDAD – Soldiers, police, prisoners and displaced people voted three days early yesterday in provincial polls that will define the political landscape while US forces withdraw.

Polls open to the general public on Saturday for a vote that will test Iraq’s tenuous stability after years of sectarian war.Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who claims credit countrywide for better security but has little clout in the provinces, is aiming to win a share of regional power from larger rival Shi’ite parties. He faces a national vote later this year.Elsewhere, Sunni Arabs, many of whom boycotted the last provincial polls in 2005, seek a bigger share of local power.’Brothers and sisters, only hours are left separating us from this unforgettable day, election day,’ the prime minister told a televised election rally in the southern city of Amara.’What makes us happy is the preparations we are seeing today – a slap in the face of those who are betting that Iraqis will not go to the ballot boxes because they are despairing.’Major-General Abdul Amir Ridha Mohammed, an army commander in Kirkuk, held up a finger dyed with purple ink that proved he voted. He said: ‘This day is a victory for all Iraqis.’Inkstained fingers became a symbol of democracy after Iraq’s historic first elections in 2005. But those polls were followed by mass sectarian killing which has only abated since mid-2007.Only minor security incidents were reported by midday yesterday: a roadside bomb wounded a civilian in a northern town and gunmen killed a person in a Kirkuk sewing machine shop.In Mosul, a volatile northern city where the election could see Arabs take power from Kurds, a policeman was killed by a roadside bomb and three people were wounded by a bomb in a shop that sells military uniforms.Yesterday’s special vote for soldiers and police frees them up for a massive security operation during the main election on Saturday, when vehicles will be banned from the streets.Holding a successful election is an important test of the ability of Iraqi troops to keep the peace as 140 000 US troops begin to leave. US President Barack Obama wants to speed up the pace of withdrawal after his predecessor George W Bush promised to pull out the troops by the end of 2011. – Nampa-Reuters