Iraqis head to……_资讯

iraqis head to polls amid violence

　iraqis, some shouting with joy, others hiding their faces in fear, voted in much higher-than-expected numbers in their first election in half a century.

　polling officially started at 7 am and closed across iraq at 5 pm yesterday.

　iraqi election officials said it might take 10 days to determine the vote's winner and said they had no firm estimate of turnout among the 14 million eligible voters. the ticket endorsed by the shiite grand ayatollah ali al-sistani was the pre-voting favorite. interim prime minister ayad allawi's slate was also considered strong.

　around 13 million iraqis, about half of the population, registered to vote in the election, though some did not due to intimidation or boycotts.

　election commission officials put the turnout at 72 per cent. but in parts of iraq's sunni arab heartland, where the insurgency has been bloodiest and many people chose to boycott the ballot, some streets and polling stations were deserted.

　the 275-seat national assembly will be formed by proportional representation of votes with a one-year mandate. it will choose a government and draft a permanent constitution put before a national referendum by october 15.

　a new government and parliament will then be elected through another ballot by the end of this year under the guidance of the constitution.

　voters formed long queues in shi'ite areas and the kurdish north, where turnout topped 90 and 80 per cent, respectively.

　in the shi'ite shrine city of najaf, hundreds of people walked calmly to polling stations amid heavy security.

　the insurgent threat did not stop samir hassan, 32, who lost a leg in a baghdad suicide bombing in october.

　"i would have crawled here if i had to," he said. "today i am voting for peace."

　to try to prevent violence, streets were barricaded, borders sealed, airports closed and only official vehicles allowed out.

　some 280,000 expatriate iraqis - about a quarter of those eligible - had registered to take part in the historic poll. officials said more than 60 per cent of them voted.