BAGHDAD,
January 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraqis, mainly
Shiites and Kurds, anxiously await the results of their first
multi-party election in 50 years, amid bombings and mortar attacks
that killed 35 people.
Election
officials raced to count ballots by hand -- in some cases by
candlelight because of widespread power outages -- to decide the
outcome of the elections, Reuters news agency reported Monday, January
31.
Officials
expect preliminary poll results in six to seven days and final results
in about 10 days.
According
to rough estimates by poll officials, up to 8 million Iraqis, some
ululating with joy, others hiding their faces in fear, cast ballots
across the country Sunday, January 30.
Around
14 million Iraqis were 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.
Controversial
Turnout
With
foreign monitors mostly staying away for fear of kidnapping, it was
impossible to assess the fairness of the election or accuracy of the
turnout estimates.
Election
officials originally put the turnout at 72 percent but later
backtracked, saying possibly 8 million had voted, or just over 60
percent of registered voters.
“However,
these figures are only very rough, word-of-mouth estimates gathered
informally from the field. It will take some time for the Independent
Electoral Commission of Iraq to issue accurate figures on turnout,”
the Election Commission said in a statement.
The
government had set a target of at least 50 percent of the eligible
voters as the barometer of success.
According
to election organizers from the International Organization for
Migration (IOM), quarter of a million Iraqi exiles, or 90 percent of
those who had registered, voted abroad in their homeland’s historic
election.
Some
280,000, out of 1.2 million, eligible expatriate Iraqi voters had
registered to take part in the election.
Divided
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An
election worker counts ballots by candlelight. (Reuters)
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Voters
created an almost festive atmosphere in Shiite areas and the northern
regions where Kurds are looking to the vote to enshrine their
autonomous rule. But mast Sunnis stayed home.
A
Shiite alliance formed under the guidance of top scholar Ayatollah Ali
Al-Sistani was almost certain to win the most votes.
Pundits
have warned that the election were all but certain to bring Shiites to
power, risking alienation of Sunnis and fomenting
sectarian
strife.
In
Samarra, streets were largely deserted and fewer than 1,400 ballots
were cast by a population of 200,000.
“Nobody
came. People were too afraid,” said Madafar Zeki, in charge of a
polling centre in the mostly Sunni city.
In
Mosul, many youths in this predominately Sunni city were busy
kicking
or carrying a ball
for a fervent soccer match instead of casting their ballots.
Amid
boycott calls from leading Sunni powers and scenes of deserted
bullet-scarred polling stations, the majority of the city’s
population did not demonstrate any enthusiasm for the vote.
15
UK Troops Killed
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An
undated file photo of a Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport
plane. (Reuters)
|
Meanwhile,
up to 15 British troops were killed Sunday when a transport plane
crashed near Baghdad in what could be Britain's biggest single loss of
life in the Iraq controversial campaign, a military source told
Reuters.
Prime
Minister Tony Blair said a number of Britons died when the C-130
Hercules transport plane crashed. He gave no figure but the source
said about 10 were dead and it could rise to 15.
There
was no comment on the cause of the crash or whether the plane had been
shot down.
The
plane crashed at around 5:25 p.m. (2.25 p.m. British time), some 20
miles northwest of Baghdad, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Before
Sunday's accident, 29 British troops had been killed in resistance
attacks in Iraq and 43 more had died in non-combat incidents.
On
Wednesday, January 26, 31 US troops were killed in a helicopter crash,
the deadliest single incident for Americans in Iraq.
