“I have been waiting for this day, I have been dreaming of this day,” said Lamaa as she cast her ballot. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD, January 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraqi expatriates in 14 world capitals began Friday, January 28, to cast their ballots, two days before the controversial general elections, with emotions running high among voters, despite the very low turnout.

“I have been waiting for this day, I have been dreaming of this day to tell my grandchildren that in the first election in the history of Iraq I was the first woman to vote,” Lamaa Jamal Talabani, 60, a Sunni Kurd married to a Shiite who lives in Baghdad, said outside an Amman polling station, Reuters reported.

Despite the high emotions among the Iraqi voters abroad, only a maximum of 280,000 Iraqi expatriates have registered for the January vote against expectations of over one million overseas Iraqi eligible voters.

Iraqi émigrés have already showed no avid interest in the Transitional National Assembly election, which is held in a juncture marred by incessant violence and uncontrollable chaos, forcing the vote organizers to extend until Tuesday, 25 January, the deadline for casting the ballot.

Members of the 275-seat National Assembly will be elected to choose later a Presidency Council and draft the country’s constitution.

The constitution must then be ratified through a national referendum – scheduled to take place at the end of 2005.

Australia

Iraqi exiles in Australia began showing up in the early morning in polling stations to cast ballot, with some dancing in the streets, twirling scarves and singing, and displaying blue ink on their fingers.

 “When I look at the ink on my finger -- this is a mark of freedom,” said Kassim Abood, outside a polling booth in a disused furniture warehouse in western Sydney, according to Reuters.

“I didn't think I would live long enough to see this moment,” said Abood.

Around 8,200 people had signed up to vote in the polls, compared to early estimates of up to 40,000 or even more, out of an estimated population of Iraqis in Australia amounting to 90,000, AFP said.

Rebwav Aziz, 38, a polling station manager in Sydney who was the first Iraqi to cast a vote in the election, said he was proud of casting ballot in the vote.

“I'm proud to vote for the election,” he said.

“We have been looking forward to this time (for the) last 50 years, actually, so it's a very exciting day for Iraq citizens.”

Middle East

An Iraqi man shows his right index finger stained with blue ink. (Reuters)

And in the Middle East, polling stations in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iran and Syria opened doors for the Iraqi voters eager to cast ballot.

Iraqi exiles in Jordan and Syria showed up in voting centers in low numbers amid tightened security measures around the polling venues with police cutting off traffic and setting up roadblocks.

“I am ecstatic to have passed through this experience at last. This (election) might cause a difference, not necessarily right away but eventually,” said Sara Masoud, a student who has lived in Syria for eight years.

Only 3,439 Iraqis out of 200,000 eligible voters In Jordan have registered for the Sunday's elections.

Heavyweight Iraqi clans in Jordan have called for boycotting the January vote because it will be held under the US occupation.

While in Syria, only 9,000 Iraqis of those living in the country have been registered for the polls.

The Iraqi community in Syria is estimated at some 400,000, of whom nearly 200,000 are entitled to vote.

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) and the IOM are coordinating the voting program for the Iraqi expatriates.

The 92-million-dollar vote is being carried out in 14 countries: the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Turkey, the United States, Canada, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

UAE

A similar scene took place in the United Arab Emirates with few numbers of Iraqi expatriates flocking to polling stations in early morning, AFP said.

The first to vote in Dubai was 60-year-old physician Nazem Kazem Saoodi, who turned up 15 minutes after polls opened at 7:00 am (0300 GMT), saying he came early because “it is the chance we have been waiting for decades.”

“Yes, we did it!” shouted Ali Al-Kabeer, clapping his hands after casting his ballot and breaking into tears as he hugged his wife.

Kabeer said he had “been waiting for this moment for 54 years,” 24 of which he has spent in England and the UAE.

“I'm doing this for my children ... it's the first step in a thousand-mile journey,” he said.

Kabeer and his wife, Faten Al-Hilali, both Shiite, said they voted for the list of elder Sunni statesman Adnan Pachachi “because he is democratic and independent” and all those on Pachachi's list would benefit Iraq.

In Abu Dhabi, where Iraqis streamed into the heavily-guarded sports city to vote, the atmosphere was equally emotional.

“This is the day I have been dreaming of... if the elected people don't fulfill their promises and do what is good for Iraq, we will throw them in the dustbin next time,” said Jamil Abdul Jaleel, a 56-year-old native of Kirkuk who was voting for the communist party.

Nearly 12,600 Iraqis registered to vote in the Gulf Arab state, where polling centers have been set up in Dubai and the capital of Abu Dhabi.

France

And in France, just few numbers of Iraqi voters began early Friday to flow to a polling station in Paris to cast ballot in the polls, an election official told AFP.

“Voting began this morning at 7:00 (0600 GMT),” said Marion Wambergue of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“A few people have already voted; everything is totally calm,” she added.

Wambergue said she expected a heavier turnout Saturday and Sunday as voters from Belgium, Italy, Spain and Switzerland -- countries where no polling stations have been set up -- travel to France to take part in the elections.

Only 1,041 Iraqi residents in France have registered for the election. The country is believed to be home to between 8,000 and 20,000 Iraqis.

Many Iraqi powers have been calling for a six-month delay of the January polls.

The majority of Iraq’s Sunnis are likely to boycott the vote after calls from the Association of Muslim Scholars, the highest religious authority in the country.

The Islamic Party - the largest Sunni party in Iraq – had also quit the election.