Iraqi women line up outside a polling station in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah. (Reuters)

ARBIL, Iraq, January 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Filled with rosy hopes the vote will give them a more robust role in Iraq's future, thousands of Kurds flocked to polling stations on Sunday, January 30, to cast ballots.

Since early morning, Kurds were seen filling out three different ballots to elect a 275-member National Assembly, provincial councils and a local parliament for the Kurdish self-ruled region in the northern provinces of Sulaymaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk, reported Agence France Presse (AFP).

Casting their ballots, Kurds were hopeful that the elections would usher in a new era after long oppression under the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

“My husband is in the national guard and I came with my children because I want their future to be better than ours after this election,” Pina Mohammed told AFP after voting in a center at Arbil's Rizkari school.

“Democracy is great. We have deprived of it for so long and now we can finally choose the people who represent us,” said Kamiran Ahmed, 19, who cast his ballot in a polling station in Arbil.

“I hope that our lives will be changed [and] that those who made our parents suffer will never come back to power.”

Hosniya Jabbar, an 83-year-old woman, agreed.

“My husband is dead and my children live abroad but I am voting for the children of Kurdistan, to give them a better future.”

Iraqi voters nervously cast ballots in the first-ever Iraqi general elections in more than 50 years against a backdrop of bombings and mortar attacks.

Around 14 million Iraqis are eligible to cast ballots at some 5,700 polling stations to elect a 275-seat National Assembly that will in turn choose a Presidency Council and draft the country’s new constitution.

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

The vote is based on a single constituency, proportional closed-list system, meaning that if a party gets 10 per cent of the votes, it gets 10 per cent of the seats.

Expanding Self-rule

Expectations are running high on a heavy Kurdish turnout as the Kurds hope to expand their self-rule region to include the northern oil center of Kirkuk.

In the run-up to the elections, the two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, unveiled an enthusiastic agenda which suggests establishing two self-rule Arab and Kurdish districts in Iraq.

It also champions the idea of federalism as the best way to guarantee the rights of minorities.

Unlike other Iraqis who vote for the first time in half a century, Kurds have had the chance to vote in a free elections.

In 1992, Kurds elected a regional parliament and in 1999 they elected three provincial councils.

The Kurds have enjoyed 13 years of increasing autonomy and prosperity in a protected security zone in Iraq since the first Gulf War.

Even though, Kurdish leaders have frequently dismissed reports about their desire to push for a separate Kurdish state in the north.

Divided Kirkuk

True to their divided status, Kirkuk’s inhabitants were uncertain whether to vote with joy or trepidation.

The city’s ethnic mix of Kurds, Arabs, ethnic Turkmen and a range of other minorities ranging from Christians to Jews and Assyrians makes Kirkuk a tinderbox.

At a polling station in the Al-Watan school about 50 people, most of whom are women, were queuing before the building, surrounded by barbed wire, to cast their ballots.

“I came today to vote for the Kurdistan list in order to guarantee the rights of the Kurds and help rebuild the Iraq that was destroyed along years of wars and oppression,” said Kafiah Jabbar, a woman in her 60s.

Ismael Ahmed Rajab, a 42-year-old Arab, said he cast his vote for a Kurdish dominated list.

“For the first time, I feel free to choose whom I want in Iraq.

“Iraq will witness a progressive building of democracy. This can be done through freedom of expression and freedom to choose who is best to lead the nation after years of tyranny and oppression.”

Kirkuk and the surrounding province of the same name sits on huge oil reserves that will play a crucial role in Iraq's economic future.