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Early voting begins in Iraq
Iraqis have begun voting in hospitals, military camps and prisons, a few days in advance of general elections to be held on 15 December.
At Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital on Monday, election officials said the first of 1500 patients began voting. Voting should end at 5pm.
On Tuesday, the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi voters living outside the country can begin casting their ballots at polling centres in 15 countries, including the US, Canada and Australia.
Voting also ends on Thursday evening in each of these countries.
"The election process is running very well," said Yousif Ibrahim, director of the election centre.
"There is a big hall for patients who can easily walk and the election committee moves a box around to the wards where there are patients who can not leave their beds."
Heavy security
Draconian security measures, similar to those enforced during two earlier elections this year, have been imposed to keep attacks at bay and minimise bloodshed during Thursday's main event.
Airports and borders will shut from Wednesday until Friday or Saturday, curfews extended and a ban on carrying weapons imposed even for those with permits. A five-day public holiday will also be in effect.
"We are hoping for a calm day as during the referendum," said Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh.
A vote on the country's new constitution on 15 October passed without the spectacular bombings that have become post-invasion Iraq's trademark.
Monday's special polling booths opened at 7am (0400 GMT) and were to close at 5pm (1400 GMT), electoral official Farid Ayar confirmed.
In the northern Kurdish city of Sulaymaniya, 19,800 hospital patients, detainees and security forces had registered to vote in 499 special polling booths, said Shaikh Latif, a local electoral commission official.
This week's election marks a new beginning for Iraq following the chaos that prevailed after the removal of Saddam Hussein by US-led invasion in 2003, two transitional governments and the adoption of a constitution in October.
Political horse
When the dust settles on the inevitable political horse trading, Iraqis will be left with a four-year parliament to carve out a new direction for the country, which is teetering on the tightrope of inter-communal tensions.
Moves towards democracy, marked by well-organised ballots and determined turnout, are a cornerstone of US policy in the Middle East, with Washington increasingly focused on an ultimate exit strategy from Iraq.
But the success of the election and future prospects of stability hinge on the turnout among the Sunnis who boycotted the January 30 election for a transitional parliament.
Iraq's 15.5 million voters will elect a 275-member assembly from about 7000 candidates in the first full-term legislature since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The 228 political entities that have presented candidates are roughly double the 111 groups that contested in the initial poll in January.
The first task of MPs will be to appoint, by a two-thirds majority, a president and two vice-presidents.
The presidency council will then have 15 days to name a prime minister, who will form a cabinet to be put to parliament for approval.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/87C7272A-602A-4CCB-A7D7-DD591F724F45.htm
On Tuesday, the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi voters living outside the country can begin casting their ballots at polling centres in 15 countries, including the US, Canada and Australia.
Voting also ends on Thursday evening in each of these countries.
"The election process is running very well," said Yousif Ibrahim, director of the election centre.
"There is a big hall for patients who can easily walk and the election committee moves a box around to the wards where there are patients who can not leave their beds."
Heavy security
Draconian security measures, similar to those enforced during two earlier elections this year, have been imposed to keep attacks at bay and minimise bloodshed during Thursday's main event.
Airports and borders will shut from Wednesday until Friday or Saturday, curfews extended and a ban on carrying weapons imposed even for those with permits. A five-day public holiday will also be in effect.
"We are hoping for a calm day as during the referendum," said Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh.
A vote on the country's new constitution on 15 October passed without the spectacular bombings that have become post-invasion Iraq's trademark.
Monday's special polling booths opened at 7am (0400 GMT) and were to close at 5pm (1400 GMT), electoral official Farid Ayar confirmed.
In the northern Kurdish city of Sulaymaniya, 19,800 hospital patients, detainees and security forces had registered to vote in 499 special polling booths, said Shaikh Latif, a local electoral commission official.
This week's election marks a new beginning for Iraq following the chaos that prevailed after the removal of Saddam Hussein by US-led invasion in 2003, two transitional governments and the adoption of a constitution in October.
Political horse
When the dust settles on the inevitable political horse trading, Iraqis will be left with a four-year parliament to carve out a new direction for the country, which is teetering on the tightrope of inter-communal tensions.
Moves towards democracy, marked by well-organised ballots and determined turnout, are a cornerstone of US policy in the Middle East, with Washington increasingly focused on an ultimate exit strategy from Iraq.
But the success of the election and future prospects of stability hinge on the turnout among the Sunnis who boycotted the January 30 election for a transitional parliament.
Iraq's 15.5 million voters will elect a 275-member assembly from about 7000 candidates in the first full-term legislature since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The 228 political entities that have presented candidates are roughly double the 111 groups that contested in the initial poll in January.
The first task of MPs will be to appoint, by a two-thirds majority, a president and two vice-presidents.
The presidency council will then have 15 days to name a prime minister, who will form a cabinet to be put to parliament for approval.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/87C7272A-602A-4CCB-A7D7-DD591F724F45.htm
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Two of the civilians were killed when a car bomb exploded near a police station in the eastern district of the city.15 others were wounded in the attack, including five policemen.
Three other policemen as well as another Iraqi civilian died in a firefight in western Baghdad between Iraqi police and gunmen. Nine other people were also wounded in the clash, which occurred in the Ghazalia region of the capital, according to Reuters.
Parliamentary elections begin
Monday's incidents come as early elections for Iraq's new parliament began with hospital patients, military camps and prisoners who have not been convicted of crimes spearheading the vote. Iraq vote electionThe vote comes ahead of Iraq's general elections, in which the rest of the nation's 15 million eligible voters will vote on December15 .
The parliament elected will be the first constitutional parliament in Iraq since the 2003 collapse of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Iraq's borders have been closed for two days in preparation for the vote in the hope of thwarting any possible violence which may occur to disrupt the vote. Travel restrictions and curfews have also been imposed.
Bayan Jabr, Iraq's Interior Minister told reporters, "We are very prepared for the elections, and we are highly determined", according to the AP.
Read More
http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/192499
Many thousands of Iraqis were on the register to vote in hospitals, jails and barracks across the country.
A five-day public holiday will begin on Tuesday as security tightens ahead of Thursday's election.
In a website statement al-Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups purportedly branded the polls a "devilish plot".
"Entering the political process, taking part in the elections or voting is against Islamic laws and our constitution the Koran," the five groups purportedly said.
More abuse claims
Correspondents say there was an almost festive atmosphere outside some special polling stations in Baghdad.
Helmeted soldiers flashed the V-for-victory sign, cheered and held their weapons in the air outside one polling station, French news agency Agence France Presse reported.
In Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital, ballot boxes were brought to the beds of those too weak to walk so they could cast their vote using an inked finger.
Among them was a patient wounded in a bomb attack, and another assaulted by thieves.
"They are all looking forward to this process since this will be good for the Iraqi people," said Yousif Ibrahim, an electoral commission worker at the hospital.
Some 200,000 members of Iraq's security forces were registered to vote, before taking up their positions to protect polling stations later in the week.
And more than 12,000 Iraqis at the large coalition-run prisons of Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca were also on the register to vote, the electoral commission was quoted by AFP as saying.
But Monday's voting was overshadowed by reports that Iraqi and US officials had found 625 inmates in "very overcrowded conditions" in an interior ministry prison last week.
Thirteen of the prisoners needed hospital treatment amid torture claims.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said an inquiry would be held.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4522098.stm