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IRAQI Kurds flocked to
polling stations in northern Iraq for today's
historic election, which they hope will herald a new
era for their long-oppressed community.
Pina Mohammed brought her two children to cast her
ballot.
"I want their future to be better than ours," she
said outside the voting centre at Arbil's Rizkari
school.
While many voters across Iraq were hesitant to
venture outside after insurgents carried out
attacks, this school in Arbil's Sidawa neighbourhood
saw an early rush of voters.
Kurdish areas are expected to register the highest
turnout in Iraq despite fears that Sunni Arab
extremist organisations would seek to target their
rival communities to discredit the elections.
A heavy police and Iraqi army presence could be seen
around polling stations in Arbil, a city which saw
one of the worst Islamist attacks since the US
invasion when more than 100 people were killed in
twin bombings last year.
Hosniya Jabbar, an 83-year-old woman, also made the
effort to reach the polling station.
"My husband is dead and my children live abroad but
I am voting for the children of Kurdistan, to give
them a better future," she said.
Kamiran Ahmed, 19, was equally enthusiastic.
"Democracy is great. We have deprived of it for so
long and now we can finally choose the people who
represent us," he said. "I hope that that our lives
will be changed that those who made our parents
suffer will never come back to power."
Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan and is thought by some to be vying for a
top position in the next government, was among the
first to vote in Suleimaniyah.
The union and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party
of Massud Barzani are running on a common slate
which is expected to perform strongly and secure
more than 50 seats in the assembly.
Unlike the rest of Iraq, it is not the first time
Kurds in the three northern provinces have had the
chance to vote in a free election. In 1992, just
after the first Gulf war, they elected a regional
parliament, and in 1999 they elected three
provincial councils.
But today's vote is likely to be crucial to the
Kurds' political ambitions as the 275-member
national assembly up for grabs is charged with
writing a new constitution for post-Saddam Iraq.
Kurdish leaders want that text to enshrine their
hard-fought right to self-rule and want their
existing autonomous region expanded to include the
northern oil centre of Kirkuk and parts of two other
provinces.
Kurds will also pick their provincial councils and
their 111-member autonomous parliament.
Reuters
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