.Polls open in Iraq election
Polling stations have opened in Iraq for the second full parliamentary elections since the 2003 US-led invasion, and the defeat of Saddam Hussein.
Around 19 million eligible voters will choose from over 6,000 candidates from 86 political groups looking to gain seats in the 325-member assembly.
But as polls opened on Sunday, at least twelve people were killed and eight wounded when an explosion destroyed a residential building in northern Baghdad.
Initial reports indicated that dynamite was used to blow up the building in the north of the city, the interior ministry official said.
Earlier, four people were killed when another residential building was targeted in the Iraqi capital the Reuters news agency reported.
Four mortars also landed in the fortified "Green Zone", which houses the Iraqi parliament, several ministries and foreign embassies, an interior ministry official said, though no injuries were reported.
Two more mortar attacks also took place in Salahuddin province and in the area of Ramadi in Anbar province, officials said. There were no reports of damage.
Sectarian v secular
Voters on Sunday can pick between the mainly Shia Muslim parties that have dominated Iraq since the fall of Saddam and rivals offering secular alternatives.
"This election marks another step in the march of our democracy - and also a test," Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president and a veteran Kurdish politician seeking another term, said.
It is impossible to predict who will lead Iraq's next government after an election that stands out in the Middle East for its competitiveness.
Polling stations across the country are due to stay open until 5pm local time (1400 GMT) unless polling hours are extended.
Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, whose State of Law coalition is claiming credit for improved security since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-07, faces a challenge from one-time partners looking to recapture Shia support.
He also takes on a secular list tapping into exasperation with years of conflict, poor public services and corruption, and hoping to gain support from a once-dominant Sunni minority.
Iyad Allawi, a former prime minister who heads the cross-sectarian, secularist Iraqiya list, is already complaining about irregularities in early voting, setting the scene for possible challenges to the election's integrity.
Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia religious leader, asked his followers on Saturday to turn out and vote in the election.
In a televised address from Tehran, the capital of neighbouring Iran, al-Sadr urged Iraqis to turn out in large numbers and give their support to those who he said were "faithful" to the Iraqi people.
Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reporting from Baghdad, said: "Perhaps this is a sign that all parties are moving towards a more political and peaceful path and if there is one word that is common amongst all the voters, it is a message of national unity and anti-sectarianism."
No bloc is expected to win a majority, and it may take weeks or months to form a government.
The result could be a dangerous vacuum that armed groups might exploit.
This week, 600,000 people, including soldiers and detainees, voted early, as did Iraqi expatriates and refugees abroad.
Security
Strict security measures have come into force during the election, beginning with a curfew that began on Friday evening in Ramadi and other restrictions that will last for three days.
They include a ban on use of civilian vehicles on election day to try to foil car bombers.
The 96,000 US troops remaining in Iraq will stay in the background, underscoring the waning American role in Iraq.
Iraq's political course will be decisive for plans of Barack Obama, the US president, to halve US troop levels over the next five months and withdraw entirely by end-2011.
The short window between the election and Washington's August 31 deadline for ending combat operations has raised doubts about whether Obama might reconsider his plans, but US officials say that would take an "extraordinarily dire" situation.
The election will be supervised by as many as 120 international monitors, with a number of foreign embassies providing staff to act as monitors too.
Iraqis living abroad started voting in their country's general election two days before the election.
The Iraqi electoral commission is to announce preliminary results on March 10-11, based on votes from about 30 per cent of the polling stations.
The supreme court would then certify the poll results, after hearing appeals, within about a month of the election, the official said.
After the last national election in 2005, it took Iraq's feuding political parties about five months to agree on a prime minister and for a cabinet to be approved.
Al Jazeera
Around 19 million eligible voters will choose from over 6,000 candidates from 86 political groups looking to gain seats in the 325-member assembly.
But as polls opened on Sunday, at least twelve people were killed and eight wounded when an explosion destroyed a residential building in northern Baghdad.
Initial reports indicated that dynamite was used to blow up the building in the north of the city, the interior ministry official said.
Earlier, four people were killed when another residential building was targeted in the Iraqi capital the Reuters news agency reported.
Four mortars also landed in the fortified "Green Zone", which houses the Iraqi parliament, several ministries and foreign embassies, an interior ministry official said, though no injuries were reported.
Two more mortar attacks also took place in Salahuddin province and in the area of Ramadi in Anbar province, officials said. There were no reports of damage.
Sectarian v secular
Voters on Sunday can pick between the mainly Shia Muslim parties that have dominated Iraq since the fall of Saddam and rivals offering secular alternatives.
"This election marks another step in the march of our democracy - and also a test," Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president and a veteran Kurdish politician seeking another term, said.
It is impossible to predict who will lead Iraq's next government after an election that stands out in the Middle East for its competitiveness.
Polling stations across the country are due to stay open until 5pm local time (1400 GMT) unless polling hours are extended.
Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, whose State of Law coalition is claiming credit for improved security since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-07, faces a challenge from one-time partners looking to recapture Shia support.
He also takes on a secular list tapping into exasperation with years of conflict, poor public services and corruption, and hoping to gain support from a once-dominant Sunni minority.
Iyad Allawi, a former prime minister who heads the cross-sectarian, secularist Iraqiya list, is already complaining about irregularities in early voting, setting the scene for possible challenges to the election's integrity.
Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia religious leader, asked his followers on Saturday to turn out and vote in the election.
In a televised address from Tehran, the capital of neighbouring Iran, al-Sadr urged Iraqis to turn out in large numbers and give their support to those who he said were "faithful" to the Iraqi people.
Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reporting from Baghdad, said: "Perhaps this is a sign that all parties are moving towards a more political and peaceful path and if there is one word that is common amongst all the voters, it is a message of national unity and anti-sectarianism."
No bloc is expected to win a majority, and it may take weeks or months to form a government.
The result could be a dangerous vacuum that armed groups might exploit.
This week, 600,000 people, including soldiers and detainees, voted early, as did Iraqi expatriates and refugees abroad.
Security
Strict security measures have come into force during the election, beginning with a curfew that began on Friday evening in Ramadi and other restrictions that will last for three days.
They include a ban on use of civilian vehicles on election day to try to foil car bombers.
The 96,000 US troops remaining in Iraq will stay in the background, underscoring the waning American role in Iraq.
Iraq's political course will be decisive for plans of Barack Obama, the US president, to halve US troop levels over the next five months and withdraw entirely by end-2011.
The short window between the election and Washington's August 31 deadline for ending combat operations has raised doubts about whether Obama might reconsider his plans, but US officials say that would take an "extraordinarily dire" situation.
The election will be supervised by as many as 120 international monitors, with a number of foreign embassies providing staff to act as monitors too.
Iraqis living abroad started voting in their country's general election two days before the election.
The Iraqi electoral commission is to announce preliminary results on March 10-11, based on votes from about 30 per cent of the polling stations.
The supreme court would then certify the poll results, after hearing appeals, within about a month of the election, the official said.
After the last national election in 2005, it took Iraq's feuding political parties about five months to agree on a prime minister and for a cabinet to be approved.
Al Jazeera
posted by madtom at 2:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home