36 die as Iraqis defy intimidation to vote
Insurgents bombed a polling station and lobbed grenades at voters in Iraq today, killing 36 people in attacks aimed at intimidating those taking part in an election that will determine whether the country can overcome the sectarian divisions that have plagued it since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Many Iraqis hope the election will put them on a path toward national reconciliation as the US prepares to withdraw combat forces by late summer and all troops by the end of next year.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is fighting for his political future with challenges from a coalition of mainly Shiite religious groups on one side and a secular alliance combining Shiites and Sunnis on the other.
Police reported at least 20 mortar attacks in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad shortly after daybreak. Mortars also fell in the Green Zone, home to the US Embassy and the prime minister’s office.
Polls closed at 5pm as scheduled and election officials said it could be days before preliminary results are released.
Observers warn the election is only a first step in the political process, and with the fractured nature of Iraqi politics it could take months of negotiations after results are released in the coming days for a government to be formed.
Many view the election as a crossroads where Iraq will decide whether to adhere to politics along the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish lines or move away from the ethnic and sectarian tensions that have emerged since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s iron-fisted, Sunni-minority rule.
US President Barack Obama praised Iraqis who took part in the historic vote, issuing a statement that said: “We mourn the tragic loss of life today, and honour the courage and resilience of the Iraqi people who once again defied threats to advance their democracy.”
Exiting the polls, Iraqis waved purple-inked fingers – the now-iconic image of voting in this oil-rich country of roughly 28 million people.
Extraordinary security measures did not foil Sunni insurgents who vowed to disrupt the elections – which they see as validating the Shiite-led government and the US occupation.
They launched a spate of mortar, grenade and bomb attacks throughout the morning that also targeted Mosul, Fallujah and small towns just to the south of the capital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but US and Iraqi officials described the violence as the work of insurgents trying to undermine voting.
In a posting early Sunday on an Islamic Web site, the al-Qaida front group Islamic State in Iraq warned that anyone taking part in the voting would risk “God’s wrath and to the mujahideen’s weapons,” saying the process bolsters Iraq’s Shiite majority.
An Interior Ministry official said 35 people had died in Baghdad alone but did not have a breakdown of where the deaths occurred. One other death was reported in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.
In Baghdad’s northeast Hurriyah neighbourhood, where mosque loudspeakers exhorted people to vote as “arrows to the enemies’ chest”, three people were killed when someone threw a grenade at a crowd, according to police and hospital officials.
At least 19 people died in north-eastern Baghdad after explosions destroyed two buildings about a mile apart, and mortar attacks in western Baghdad killed seven people in two different neighbourhoods, officials said.
In Mosul, police said unidentified gunmen threw a grenade on a polling centre, wounding six voters, while in Fallujah six mortar rounds were fired around the city but caused no casualties.
An explosion in the mixed neighbourhood of Kirayaat in northern Baghdad killed one person, police and hospital officials said. There were a number of other explosions elsewhere in the country, but no other reports of fatalities.
About 6,200 candidates are competing for 325 seats in the new parliament, Iraq’s second, full-term legislature since the 2003 US-led invasion.
To try to secure the elections, Iraq sealed its borders, closed the airport and deployed thousands of military and police in the streets.
Extra checkpoints were set up and some voters reported strict searches in which they could not bring even pens or cigarettes through the checkpoints ringing the voting centres.
Iraqi officials lifted a vehicle ban in the capital during the day to allow people to vote, but later reintroduced it to thwart attacks on ballots being driven to the capital.
In keeping with the US military’s assertion that Iraqis are running the elections, the only visible American military presence was in the air or escorting election observers to the polls.
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