'Iraq Needs All of Us'

Meer Omar didn't go to school yesterday. Instead, the 8-year-old Northern Virginia boy traveled with his mother to Tysons Corner, where he watched as she cast a ballot in the first day of nationwide voting to elect Iraq's first full-term parliament.

Lina Omar, an official at the Iraq Embassy in Washington, said her son did not understand why she wanted him there. "It's a very important day," she explained. "Iraq needs all of us."

It was a day of great hope for hundreds of Iraqis -- some of whom traveled hundreds of miles -- as they cast ballots at the Best Western Tysons Westpark, the only polling place in the Northeast.

Voting will continue through tomorrow locally and at seven other polling places nationwide. Organizers predict that tens of thousands of the 240,000 eligible Iraqi voters in the United States will help select members of Iraq's new government this week.

Voters were lined up at 9 a.m. in Tysons Corner at four polling booths, where officials checked identities, registered voters and watched as ballots were cast. Fairfax County police were very visible, both in the hotel's parking lot and in the polling area, where voters were subject to a bag search and a pat down. Cell phones were not allowed.

Banaz Aku, 20, flew in yesterday morning from Manchester, N.H., with her brother and other relatives to cast their votes. She said her family fled Iraq in 1996 after her father, a worker for the United Nations, became a target of Saddam Hussein.

"I'm here today with the hope that one day my country is peaceful," said Aku, her manicured nail stained purple by the ink that voters must dip a finger in after casting a ballot. "No more fighting."

Organizers in charge of voting in the United States, which is managed directly by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said changes in the voting process are expected to attract more voters than the historic election in January.

During that election, 1,919 Iraqis cast ballots at the Washington area's polling site in New Carrollton. Officials said they hope to draw as many as 3,000 voters to Tysons Corner by the close of voting tomorrow.

"I've seen Iraqis very happy here today," said Safa Alkateb, spokesman for the Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Program in the Washington area. The votes, he said, "are not just symbolic" but will have a real impact on the election.

Heymin Abdul, 27, was among thousands of Kurds who moved to the United States in 1997.

Hussein's forces "have been killing us" in Iraq, said Abdul, who settled in Harrisonburg, Va. "Torturing us. They did anything to try to destroy the Kurdish. We thank God for the U.S.A. that we're successful now . . . to rebuild our country and stay in peace."