BAGHDAD, Jan 30: Millions of Iraqis exercised their right of franchise in a historic election on Sunday, defying militants who killed 35 people in a bloody assault on the poll.
Voters, some brimming with joy, others hiding their faces in fear, cast ballots in higher-than-expected numbers in Iraq's first multi-party election in half a century.
Despite draconian security measures imposed by the US-backed interim government, militants launched a string of attacks to try to torpedo the polls. They struck mainly in Baghdad, rocking the capital with nine suicide blasts in rapid succession. The Iraqi wing of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility.
Despite the violence, election officials said the turnout had been above expectations. They originally put it at 72 per cent but later backtracked, saying possibly eight million had voted, which would be a little over 60 per cent of registered voters.
Election commission spokesman Farid Ayar acknowledged, however, that 'the numbers are only guessing'. The government had set a target of at least 50 per cent of Iraq's 13 million registered voters as the barometer of success.
After the polls closed, election workers started counting ballots by hand - in some cases by candlelight due to widespread power outages. Officials expect preliminary results in six to seven days and final results in about 10 days.
NO INTERNATIONAL MONITORS: With international monitors mostly staying away for fear of kidnapping, it was impossible to assess the fairness of the election or accuracy of the turnout estimates.
At least 27 people were killed in Baghdad attacks, including suicide bombings carried out by a Syrian and a Chechen, interim interior minister Falab al-Naqib told Reuters.
The deadliest attack was when a man with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up in the queue at a polling station in east Baghdad, killing six people, an official said.
Another suicide bomber killed four people at a voting centre in the Sadr City slums. A suicide bomb also killed five people in a bus carrying voters south of Baghdad, Polish military in the area said.
A low Sunni turnout would damage the credibility of the first election since Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003. Iraq's Shia majority looked poised to take power.
Many fear that instead of quelling the anti-US revolt, the poll could foment sectarian strife by further alienating Sunnis, delaying any withdrawal of US forces from the country.
Casting his vote in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged his countrymen to face down the militants. "This is a historic moment for Iraq, a day when Iraqis can hold their heads high because they are challenging the terrorists and starting to write their future with their own hands," he told reporters.
"What we're seeing here is the emergence of an Iraqi voice for freedom," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told ABC television. Voters formed long queues in Shia-dominated areas and the Kurdish north, where officials said turnout was highest. Many chanted and clapped. Some had walked for miles.
"This is a wedding for all Iraqis. I congratulate all Iraqis on their new found freedom," said Jaida Hamza, dressed in a black robe, in the holy city of Najaf. Even in Fallujah, the battle-scarred city that was a militant stronghold until a US assault in November, a slow stream of people turned out, confounding expectations.
Interim defence minister Hazim al-Shaalan said Sunday's violence would have been much worse were it not for stringent measures banning private cars from the streets, which prevented even deadlier attacks with car bombs.
TIGHT SECURITY: Streets were barricaded, borders sealed, airports closed and only official vehicles allowed out on the streets. Iraq's 60 per cent Shia population had been expected to dominate the polls. Kurds, who make up nearly a fifth of Iraqis, want a result that enables them to enshrine their autonomous rule in the north.
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