Iraq's Voters Cast Ballots Under Intense Security

By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 1, 2009

BAGHDAD, Jan. 31 -- Millions of Iraqis voted peacefully Saturday in elections widely seen as a key test of Iraq's stability and foreshadowing the struggles for power and patronage that will shape the country as the U.S. role here diminishes.

The elections, the country's first in four years, were remarkable for the absence of serious attacks, highlighting security gains in the past year. But the polling took place under intense security, a reminder that Iraq is far from reaching a state of normalcy. The government sealed its borders, closed its airspace and deployed thousands of policemen to cordon off polling stations and search voters for weapons as U.S. and Iraqi forces patrolled streets. Voter turnout was lower than expected in some areas, election officials said.

Still, thousands of women, including many in conservative tribal areas, cast ballots, many for the first time. Voters brought their families to participate in only the second elections since the fall of President Saddam Hussein and by far the most open and competitive. More than 14,000 candidates contested for 440 seats to lead influential local councils, the equivalent of state legislatures in the United States.

"I am so happy," Raad al-Shimari, 30, declared in the Kadhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, flashing a forefinger stained with purple ink indicating he had just voted. "I chose the person that will represent me."

After the polls closed Saturday evening, U.N. and Iraqi officials declared the elections -- one of the most heavily monitored by independent observers in recent Middle Eastern history -- as transparent and credible. "This is a good day for Iraq's democracy," said Staffan de Mistura, the top U.N. official in Iraq.

What happens next could prove to be an even greater test for a nation in the midst of great transition. The election results, expected in a few days, are poised to recalibrate the balance of power between ethnic groups and within sects, setting the stage for fresh contests for influence and new political alliances.

"The hegemony of the big political blocs will not be like they were after the last elections," said Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish legislator. "The competition between the blocs will intensify; new coalitions will form."

The most dramatic shifts in power are expected in majority Sunni areas. Most Sunnis boycotted the 2005 elections, fearing threats from insurgents and heeding orders of tribal leaders who denounced the U.S. occupation. That allowed Shiites and Kurds to win a disproportionate share of seats on provincial councils. On Saturday, voter turnout was particularly high in Anbar province, where the Sunni insurgency was launched.

The election was in part a referendum on two of Iraq's influential personalities -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. While Maliki hopes to deepen his growing influence through election victories by his loyalists, Sadr is hoping to reverse his waning political clout by supporting independent candidates.

Many voters appeared tired of the religious parties that have dominated post-Hussein Iraq, preferring to vote for secular candidates.

The elections took place in all of Iraq's provinces except three in the autonomous Kurdish region and the province that includes the disputed city of Kirkuk, where ethnic groups were unable to reach a power-sharing agreement paving the way for elections. Tens of thousands of Iraqis and 413 foreign observers monitored the elections for fraud and other irregularities.

In Tikrit, Hussein's home town, three mortar shells landed near polling stations, police said. There were no injuries. At least five candidates were killed in the run-up to the elections, but overall violence has been less than what U.S. commanders and Iraqi officials had expected.

The only serious incident occurred in Sadr's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City when a scuffle between an Iraqi journalist and an Iraqi soldier at a polling center led to the soldier accidentally firing his gun, killing a bystander. The incident was under investigation, and the soldier was in custody, said Gen. Khalid Aydin, chief of the security committee of Iraq's Electoral Commission.

Unlike the 2005 elections, which were plagued by violence, Saturday's vote followed nearly a year of fragile calm. A cease-fire declared by Sadr, the rise of the Sunni Awakening movement that turned against the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, and an increase in U.S. troops in 2007 have contributed to the security improvements.

"These elections mark a significant milestone for the people of Iraq, and are a major step forward in Iraq's democratic development," U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and the American military's top commander, Gen. Ray Odierno, said in a statement released Saturday night.

In Anbar, where Sunni tribal leaders and former insurgents competed for power against established Sunni politicians of the religious Iraqi Islamic Party, voters swamped polling stations. Many said they regretted boycotting the 2005 elections.

"I came to vote because I want to see women representing women of Fallujah and Anbar and to prove, through my participation, that women are here and will play an important role," said Iman Karkaz, a college professor in the city of Fallujah and a women's rights activist. "For sure, this election will bring changes."

In Ramadi, the provincial capital, Majid Nawaf, 40, a carpenter, rushed out of bed to "exercise my democratic right for the first time in my life."

He said he voted for Sheik Hamid al-Hayes, a prominent Sunni tribal leader who fought against al-Qaeda in Iraq, because the current local council, controlled by the Iraqi Islamic Party, was "corrupt" and had not brought basic services and reconstruction.

Other Sunnis said they voted for Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who served as Iraq's first post-invasion prime minister in 2004.

"For five years, the religious parties controlled everything. We want to test Ayad Allawi now," said Saad Abdul Kalik, 54, a vegetable vendor in Baghdad's Adhamiyah neighborhood, a former Sunni insurgent stronghold.

Bakisay Saeed was more blunt: She voted for Allawi because he was a prominent member of Hussein's Baath Party and she believed he could run the nation with a firm hand, as Hussein had. "If he can't bring back 90 percent of Saddam's rule, he will definitely bring back 70 percent," said Saeed, 44, who has five children.

In Iraq's predominantly Shiite south, Shiite parties are in a fierce struggle for power, especially between Maliki's State of Law coalition and Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

In the port city of Basra, Rahima Jawad, 35, a teacher, said she voted for Maliki because he had ordered a government offensive last year against Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, ushering in a new era of freedom in the city.

On Saturday, women entered polling stations wearing colorful clothes, including skirts and boots that a year ago would have prompted fundamentalists to brand their attire as un-Islamic.

"We faced pressure from some sides, and they threaten us, especially from Sadr movement, which tried to force us to vote for their candidate," Jawad said. "But we didn't submit to them, and today we are here to elect Maliki."

At two polling centers in Sadr City, 15 voters interviewed said they would vote for Maliki. Many said they were no longer afraid of the Mahdi Army. "God bless Maliki," said Ali Hamid, 18, a student.

There was mass confusion at the main voting center in Baghdad's Zayouna neighborhood when dozens of voters could not find their names on registration lists.

"I wandered all over four voting centers, and each one tells me to go into another one," said Fahim Abdul Rahman Jassim, 63. "During the last elections, I participated. So what is the change now?"

In Nineveh province, about 35 international observers spent Saturday visiting villages that are the scene of a long-running dispute between Arabs and Kurds, who want to be incorporated into the autonomous regional government they control in northern Iraq. The Kurds control nearly three-fourths of the seats on the council because of the 2005 Sunni boycott. Now, Sunni Arabs are widely expected to become the majority on the council.

But in Sheikhan, a town in the disputed areas, virtually no Arabs were at the polls. Kurdistan Regional Government flags few atop schools that served as polling centers, and a government building had a sign proclaiming it part of the regional government's Ministry of Municipalities.

"Instead of campaigning openly, we're campaigning secretly," said Atheel Najafi, the head of al-Hadba, a new Sunni Arab party.

In the provincial capital of Mosul, where the Sunni insurgency is still strong, Jalal Muhildeen Obaidi said his vote would not amount to much.

"Voting or not voting is the same because this will not change anything," said Obaidi, 37, a lawyer. "Those candidates are after money and power. None of them represents the patriotic voice, and for that reason I will not cast a vote. This election is a farce."

Correspondents Ernesto Londoño in Mosul and Anthony Shadid in Diyala province, special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim, Qais Mizher and Dalya Hassan in Baghdad, Zaid Sabah in Ramadi and Washington Post staff in Najaf, Basra, Baqubah, Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah contributed to this report.