Polls Close in Iraq

In other parts of Iraq, particularly areas dominated by the majority Shiites, voting was heavy, and enthusiasm for the constitution was high.

In Najaf, a Shiite-majority city south of Baghdad that is widely expected to endorse the constitution, more than two-dozen people lined up outside the Sajedat High School for Girls, waiting for election monitors to let them in at 7 a.m. On the streets outside, police outnumbered pedestrians about 10-to-one.

"I'll say yes, yes to the constitution with all 10 of my fingers," said Nada Abdul Hassan Akashi, a 26-year-old mother clad in a black abaya, or traditional robe, who came to vote with her husband and three young daughters. "My daughters were so excited, and I wanted the new generation to see democracy."

In Mosul, a city in the northern, Kurdish area of Iraq, Samir Khalil, a 38-year-old laborer, said he would vote in favor of the constitution because it "represents me and the interests of Iraq."

But physically casting the ballot required strategic calculation. "I am just waiting for someone to come with me," he said, casting a nervous glance down an empty street. "I don't want to be alone in the street, where I'll be the only target."

Sarwa Abdul Wahab said voters arrived at her Mosul polling center in large numbers. "You could see the happiness on their faces, as if they've achieved a goal," she said.

About 35 miles west of Mosul, families reportedly turned out to vote en masse in Tall Afar, where more than 50 people were killed in two attacks earlier this week when suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowded market and outside an army recruiting center.

In Washington, President Bush praised the voting in his weekly radio address. "By casting their ballots, the Iraqi people deal a severe blow to the terrorists and send a clear message to the world: Iraqis will decide the future of their country through peaceful elections, not violent insurgency," Bush said,

He mentioned a letter, which was recently discovered and allegedly written by an al Qaeda leader, that points to the U.S. experience in Vietnam and suggests that U.S. troops will leave Iraq soon. "Al Qaeda believes that America can be made to run again. They are gravely mistaken. America will not run, and we will not forget our responsibilities," the president said. " . . . We have stood by the Iraqi people through two elections, and we will stand by them until they have established a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself."

The voting came amid extraordinarily tight security across the country, as tens of thousands of Iraqi police, Iraqi Army troops and U.S. and coalition soldiers manned checkpoints, surrounded polling stations and patrolled streets. Iraq declared a four-day holiday around the referendum, closing schools and government offices and shuttering many shops.

Iraq also sealed its borders, closed Baghdad International Airport, threw a nightcurfew across the entire country and banned all private vehicles from driving on the roads on election day, leaving Iraq's 15.5 million registered voters to walk to polling centers if they wanted to cast a ballot.

While 450 people were killed in the 19 days before the referendum, according to a tally by the Associated Press, the tough security steps immediately before the vote discouraged large public gatherings of the sort that often attract suicide bombers. The measures also apparently helped force insurgents underground, bringing a relative calm to Iraq in the two days immediately preceding Saturday's poll.