Hamida Qader, 55, a Kurdish woman from Chamchamal, came to Kirkuk to vote two days before the election. Qader said she came in order to "ensure my return to this city, from which I was driven out during the rule of the dictator Saddam Hussein."
Qader said she was staying in the city with her daughter. "I brought along my 3-year-old grandson to keep me company. I carried him as I walked for more than five kilometers" -- about three miles.
_____More on Elections_____
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Photo Gallery: The end of Iraq's Election Day brought indications of strong turnout, but also reports of at least 30 people killed.
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Transcript: The Post's Jackie Spinner discussed the scene in Irbil, where elation at electing a new Kurdish parliament has Kurds partying in the streets.
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Sheik Abdul Rahman Abdulla, a well-known Arab figure in Kirkuk, said "this is going to be a sacred day for us as Iraqis."
Abdulla said he hoped all Iraqis could be able to cast their votes, as he had, "despite the threats by the terrorists, and the difficulties the Sunni Arabs are facing in this area. But their participation will ensure balance and stability for the new provincial council, and . . . that the Arabs will not be absent after they were marginalized by the occupation authority."
Another Arab, Hasan Khalaf Juboury, said he and his wife decided to vote despite threats of violence.
"I hope my friends and relatives will also come to vote because, after I saw the large turnout by Kurds and the absence of the Arabs . . . I decided to vote in spite of the threats by the armed groups against voting."
For many voters in this city, in which ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen are vying for power, election day was as much an opportunity to celebrate their heritage as to choose their representatives.
"Today for me was like a festival," said Shereen Omar, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman. "I wore my Kurdish costume to affirm my Kurdish identity."
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Special correspondent Salih Saif Aldin in Tikrit: Omar Nouri, 24, a student here, said he and his friends were "very hesitant at the beginning" of Sunday's vote. "But when I saw that many people went" to the polling place, "I was impressed and encouraged to go and vote and I said to myself that I have to vote. This is my right and I won't leave it. Before I went, I agreed with all my friends to vote."
Thikra Khairo, an employee at the Uqba Bin Nafea polling center, described a similar phenomenon, noting that at the beginning of the day few women showed up to vote. But when they saw that others were voting and "did not face any problem," they too went to cast their ballots.
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Bassam Sebti in Baghdad: "Oh God! This is the first time I do it," said Jasim Ihsan, a policeman guarding a polling center in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood, as he prepared to cast his own vote.
Ihsan said he and his Iraqi police colleagues had spent three days at the polling center preparing for today's balloting.
"My feeling is that no problems will be done here because we are protecting and searching the people," he said. "We are ready and prepared to end this day with success."
Employees at the polling centers worked quietly and with confidence.
