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Security means most Iraqis will walk to
polls
14.10.2005
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BAGHDAD -
Millions of Iraqis will walk to cast their ballots
in Saturday's constitutional referendum as the
government lays down a tight security net to try to
thwart car bomb attacks targeting voters.
The police and army are prepared for more violence
and are determined to secure the polls, a deputy
interior minister said.
"We have made plans to get ready for the worst, from
assassinations to car bombs and suicide attacks.
Everybody is involved in this plan," Major General
Ahmed al-Khafaji told Reuters. "We have made plans
bearing in mind the worst could happen because
terrorists are determined to create chaos."
The Interior Ministry, Defence Ministry and U.S.-led
troops in Iraq have cooperated on pre-vote security
preparations, the tightest since Iraq last went to
the polls in January to elect the current interim
government.
Iraq's government has decreed that a curfew will
begin on Friday evening until Sunday morning. Travel
between the provinces will be banned from Thursday.
On Saturday, all cars will be banned from moving
inside cities and towns and voters will have to walk
to polling stations in order to minimise the dangers
of possible car bombs.
Security sources said police and troops will secure
polling stations and will search each voter. Some
tribes in Anbar province, a hotbed of insurgent
violence near the Syrian border, will help the
police secure polls there, they added.
Cars were banned from the roads on election day last
January also, but insurgents wearing suicide belts
targeted more than a dozen polling stations, and
others launched mortar attacks. More than 35 people
were killed.
Violence has spiked in the past two weeks ahead of
Saturday's vote, which some Sunni Arabs fear will
permanently sideline them in favour of the Shi'ite
majority which has risen to power following the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up amid
a crowd of Iraqi army recruits in the northern town
of Tal Afar, killing at least 30 people a day after
a car bomb detonated in the town's crowded market
killing 24.
Khafaji declined to give further details on the
security plan or the number of police and troops
involved but said "hundreds of thousands are on
alert".
"Terrorists will work fiercely to create chaos but
we will face them fiercely as well," he said. "We
are prepared for all options."
The streets of Baghdad are festooned with posters
urging Iraqi voters to defy attempts to intimidate
them and go to cast their ballots. Some of them
carry the slogan: "Vote. You will be deciding the
future."
Reuters
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