Iraqi Vote Draws Big Turnout Of Sunnis

But the story was the Sunni vote. In Ramadi, a provincial capital reduced to cratered buildings and empty streets by two years of warfare between insurgents and U.S. forces, fighting on the day of Iraq's Oct. 15 constitutional referendum kept turnout below 2 percent. More than 80 percent turned out Thursday in Ramadi and other insurgent strongholds in far western Iraq's Upper Euphrates valley, estimated a Ramadi election official, Yaseen Nouri. The exceptions were towns along the Syrian border, he said, where U.S. military operations against insurgents had made refugees of local people.

Long lines formed outside voting centers in Ramadi on Thursday despite an insurgent bombing at 7 a.m., when polls opened nationwide. Masked guerrillas of the anti-U.S. Iraqi Islamic Army movement, wearing tracksuits and toting AK-47 assault rifles, went out among houses to encourage people to vote. Witnesses said the guerrillas told them: Do not be afraid, we will protect you.

In Tall Afar, where U.S. and Iraqi forces waged a major offensive against insurgents in September, men and women streamed toward heavily guarded polling sites, with wide lines stretching for blocks. The turnout of more than 76,000 was about four times the number who cast ballots in the October referendum, according to government tallies.

All 15 polling sites in and around Tall Afar remained open throughout the day, despite a series of seven mortar attacks targeting crowds of voters in largely Shiite neighborhoods.

One strike by 60mm mortar shells killed three children and wounded two north of a polling place in Tall Afar's Moalameen neighborhood. Voting continued at the site even as Iraqi police rushed the children to a nearby U.S. military base. Shops shut down and bystanders left the streets, but a thinned stream of voters continued to flow.

"They're trying to discourage the vote. It's not working, but it's a tragedy that the little kids got killed," said Lt. Col. Christopher Hickey, commander of 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in Tall Afar. More than 1,000 U.S. troops -- including the cavalry squadron and several hundred paratroops -- backed up Iraqi police and soldiers securing the election sites. Tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles patrolled main roads, with civilian vehicle traffic banned in an effort to prevent car bombs.

"All my neighborhood is voting," said Mohammed Noon Abrahim, 53, a Sunni. "God willing, after the elections things will be good."

In Fallujah, children played soccer in the streets and crowds gathered in and around polling places, enjoying the three-day traffic ban and the release brought by voting.

"Right now, the city is experiencing a democratic celebration," said Dari Abdul Hadi Zubaie, the mayor, who compared it to a wedding.

Many of those who cast ballots in the city of about 250,000, west of Baghdad in Anbar province, said they considered voting an act of resistance against the continued presence of U.S. Marines in Fallujah. On Thursday, polling sites were protected by Iraqi police, while Marines withdrew to a perimeter no closer than 100 yards away.

"The main thing I want is the Americans to get out. Maybe they can stay on their bases for a little while and out of the city, but before long they should leave Iraq," said Hakim Rashid, 30, who with his younger brother Ahmad voted for the Tawafaq slate, a Sunni religious coalition led by the Iraqi Islamic Party.

Within hours of the polls opening, however, several sites ran out of ballots and ballot boxes. As election workers scrambled to arrange for more to be delivered, many potential voters were turned away. At midday in Ramadi, mosque loudspeakers called people back to the polls after election workers replenished stacks of ballots.