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In the Kurdish area, people are not as scared as
those in the rest of Iraq when they find out they
have a polling station as a neighbour.
Paiman Ezzadin says she's proud to be living near a
polling station. She's now looking forward to doing
her bit to help make election day a success.
"I think it's as though I'd arrested a terrorist,"
said Ezzadin.
Her opinion is a rare one in Iraq, where dozens of
polling sites have been attacked by insurgents in
week leading up to the landmark elections.
Many of the polling sites in Iraq are schools,
located in residential communities. The threat of
attacks in their neighborhoods has caused many
people to pack up and move away for the election
period.
But in Ezzadin lives in Sulaimaniyah, in the
Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq. Here the
situation is starkly different.
The three Kurdish-administered provinces have
enjoyed relative security, thanks to the presence of
60,000 battle-hardened Kurdish militiamen known as
peshmerga.
The Kurds have governed themselves since escaping
Saddam Hussein's control after the 1991 Gulf War.
The region is administered by a government made up
of the two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan
Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan. They have formed a joint list for the
Iraqi National Assembly election to maximise Kurdish
power at the national level, although they will be
running separately in the regional elections.
Part of the reason for the election enthusiasm in
Sulaimaniyah is what is now at stake for the Kurds.
Iraq's Shia majority is expected to sweep the polls,
but the Kurds, who make up about 20 per cent of the
population, are also expected to make a strong
showing. That could help them press for their
long-hoped for greater autonomy to be written into
Iraq's new constitution.
Dler Muhammed Said, director of a polling station
located at the Bayan school, said the neighbours
have been an encouragement to his team as they
prepare for the elections.
On the eve of the elections, Sulaimaniyah resident
Bahe Kareem brought a flask of hot tea and a message
over to the security forces guarding the polling
station near her home.
"God bless you! If you want anything, just tell us
and it will be ready in a minute," she told them.
This story has not been bylined because of concerns
for the security of IWPR reporters.
www.iwpr.net
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