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Iraq counts ballots after landmark vote
More than two-thirds of Iraq's electorate voted in a landmark election, estimates say, spawning hope for the country and boosting the prospect of encouraging minority Sunnis back into politics.
One day after the election, with Iraq still subjected to tough security measures, millions of ballot papers were being counted in the vote for the first full-term government since Saddam Hussein fell from power in 2003.
In stark contrast to a January poll, the election was marked by minimal violence and high-turnout, including in Sunni Arab areas that had until now largely boycotted the US-led political transition to sovereignty.
"The number of whose who took part in the ballot should be between 10 and 11 million voters, according to our first estimates," said electoral official Farid Ayar.
Eleven million voters would put turnout at just over 70%.
Voting hailed
International monitors said the election had "generally" met international standards despite some procedural issues and hailed the organisers for meeting a "difficult challenge".
Abroad, 320,000 expatriates voted in the election.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/76C5BD16-5ACD-4529-ACE3-A5BD522C972D.htm
In stark contrast to a January poll, the election was marked by minimal violence and high-turnout, including in Sunni Arab areas that had until now largely boycotted the US-led political transition to sovereignty.
"The number of whose who took part in the ballot should be between 10 and 11 million voters, according to our first estimates," said electoral official Farid Ayar.
Eleven million voters would put turnout at just over 70%.
Voting hailed
International monitors said the election had "generally" met international standards despite some procedural issues and hailed the organisers for meeting a "difficult challenge".
Abroad, 320,000 expatriates voted in the election.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/76C5BD16-5ACD-4529-ACE3-A5BD522C972D.htm
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Atheer and Waleed thought that the curfew on vehicles driving on the road was over. An hour later their uncle, Abu Samer, in Baghdad, received a telephone call from a friend saying: "The Americans killed Atheer, and Waleed is in Fallujah main hospital with serious wounds."
In fact the curfew did not end until this morning, though the government had made little effort to tell anybody about this.
Abu Samer tried to drive from Baghdad to Sukhuriya to find out what had happened to his nephews, but Iraqi National Guard soldiers at a checkpoint told him the curfew was still in force and turned him back.
These casual killings are the reality of life in and around Baghdad. The everyday incidents of war play as great a role in determining the political mood as the much-publicised elections. The death of men like Atheer, who also worked on the family farm, and Waleed, who inspected vehicles a a customs post on the Syrian border, usually go unreported.
The violence is not likely to end soon. Insurgent leaders from in and around Fallujah said yesterday that the de facto truce to enable Sunni Arabs to vote was now over. "As long as the occupation exists along with those agents who brought it, we will continue our armed struggle," said Abu Muyasir, a former member of the Baath party who is a guerrilla leader in Fallujah.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article333683.ece