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Shiites queuing outside a polling station to cast their ballots. (Reuters)
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Additional
Reporting by Mazen Ghazi, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
January 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As jovial mood
colored Shiite neighborhoods and cities across Iraq on election day, a
grim one was the hallmark of Sunni-dominated areas which looked like
virtual ghost towns with deserted polling stations.
Shiite
voters queued outside polling stations, mainly in the south, to cast
their ballots enthusiastically, answering a call from their spiritual
leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani.
In
the Shiite district of Al-Washash, in central Baghdad, voters flocked
to a polling station in Al-Intsar primary school amid watertight
security.
Voters
are frisked at three checkpoints and asked to leave their cellular
phones outside over fears they could be used in remote-controlled
bombings.
Iraqi
policemen check identity and election papers before handing voters two
ballots one for the National Assembly and the other for the
provisional councils.
In
the holy Shiite city of Najaf, mothers carrying babies and blind men
helped by relatives were among thousands who rushed to cast their
ballots.
“I
insisted on coming despite my handicap because voting is a religious
duty according to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani,” Jawwad Shkeir, a
56-year-old blind man, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Eighty-year-old
Mahdeya Saleh, covered from head to toe in a black chador robe, was
beaming with pride at being part of the Iraq's first democratic
elections in 50 years.
“I
was often forced to vote under (the ousted regime) of Saddam Hussein.
Today I came freely to choose the candidate of my choice. This is the
first and last time in my life,” to vote, she said.
Waiting
outside a voting centre in the southern city of Nasiriyah, Latif
Hassan praised the elections “a foundation for a new Iraq.”
At
one polling center in Baquba, Ali Abdul Sattar, a Shiite, also
described the polls in religious lines.
“This
election is just like Noah's Ark -- whoever is on board will survive
and those outside will perish.”
Iraq’s
major Shiite groups unveiled on December 9 a much-talked-about unified
list of 228 candidates, back by Sistani, and young leader Moqtada
Al-Sadr was conspicuous by his absence.
Around
14 million Iraqis are eligible to cast ballots Sunday, January 30, 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.
Grim
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Polling stations have been deserted by most Sunnis. (Reuters). |
However,
the mood was grim in the Sunni heartland.
Many
polling stations in Sunnis cities and districts looked deserted with
few, if any, turning up in the first two hours of voting.
“There
is a poor turnout in our polling stations in Al-Adhamiya secondary
school,” Tarke Yasser, who boycotted the elections, told
IslamOnline.net.
“It
is expected because leading Sunni powers and parties have decided to
boycott the vote.”
The
Association of Muslim Scholars, the highest Sunni religious authority
in Iraq, championed the call for election boycott.
The
Islamic Party of Iraq, the main Sunni political party, had quit the
election race also over aggravating insecurity.
A
poll conducted by the US-based Zogby International for Abu Dhabi
television showed Friday, January 28, that three out of four Iraqi
Sunnis would not vote.
Election
staff did not even turn up in time to open voting stations in Samarra,
northwest of Baghdad, and few police were seen on the streets.
“Nobody
will vote in Samarra because of the security situation,” Taha
Hussein, head of the local council in Samarra, told AFP.
One
polling station in Al-Kalaa district opened 90 minutes late and Iraqi
commandos took up positions outside.
Polling
stations in other towns have not opened four hours after nationwide
voting started earlier in the day.
“In
Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah, polling stations have not yet
opened their doors,” election commission spokesman Farid Ayar told
reporters.
“
As you know, Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah are hotspots. We have
allowed residents of these areas to vote in the nearest polling
station” to the towns, said another member of the commission.
Tikrit,
the hometown of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, was described
as a ghost town.
Militants
unleashed Sunday a wave of bloody attacks, killing at least 27 people
and wounding dozens in bombings and mortar strikes at polling stations
across the country.
Representatives
of several Iraqi parties and leading political figures have been
campaigning for a six-month delay of the vote over the increasing
deteriorating security conditions.
UN
Iraqi envoy Lakhdar Brahimi also warned that holding the elections
would be impossible unless “first and foremost security improves.”
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