BAGHDAD, October 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraqis voted on Saturday, October 15, in a referendum on a controversial draft constitution that has sharply divided the occupied country.

Around 15.5 million Iraqis were registered to vote and several polling stations in Baghdad came under fire earlier in the day despite the strict security lockdown, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Polls opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) at more than 6,000 voting centers staffed by 200,000 workers. They were scheduled to close at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) and final results are expected within three days, according to chief electoral official Adil Al-Lami.

Dozens of men and women entered voting stations in separate lines. Squads of policemen checked identity papers and searched voters before they cast their ballots.

Voters are being asked a single question: "Do You Approve the Draft Constitution of Iraq".

The country's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani and Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari voted early inside Baghdad's heavily-protected Green Zone.

"I think the majority (of all Iraqis) will vote yes," said Talabani, who on Friday, October 14, urged Sunni Arabs to support the draft.

Many Sunnis fear federal provisions in the charter could lead to the break-up of Iraq and leave control of its vast oil wealth in the hands of Shiites and Kurds.

On Wednesday, Iraqi leaders reached a deal approving last-minute additions to the draft in a bid to bring Sunnis on board, including the creation of a panel to consider further amendments after new elections on December 15.

But the amendments were downplayed by leading Sunni groups as cosmetic.

Sunni imams used Friday prayers to appeal for calm and Sunni unity as some Iraqis took to the streets to condemn the Iraqi Islamic Party for backing the draft after initial opposition.

Underscoring the hostility among Sunni Arabs to the document, posters outside a prominent Sunni mosque in Baghdad showed Iraq cut up by bloody knifes held by hands attached to US and Iranian flags and declared: "No to the constitution that tears the unity of Iraq."

Other political powers including Kurdish Democratic Solution party, Communists and Shiite Moqtada Al-Sadr and Imam Jawad Al-Khalsi have further rejected the draft constitution.

The charter requires a simple majority to be approved, but it will be rejected if two-thirds of the votes in at least three of Iraq's 18 provinces vote "no."

Sunnis are a majority in Al-Anbar, Nineveh and Salahudin provinces.