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Iraqis vote in constitutional referendum
15.10.2005
By Hamza Hendawi
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BAGHDAD, Iraq Oct
15 (AP) - Iraqis voted Saturday to give a "yes" or
"no" to a constitution that would define democracy
in Iraq, a country once ruled by Saddam Hussein and
now sharply divided among its Shiite, Sunni and
Kurdish communities.
The polls opened at 7 a.m., just hours after
insurgents sabotaged power lines in the northern
part of the country, plunging the Iraqi capital into
darkness and cutting off water supplies.
The capital was eerily quiet under clear blue skies
Saturday morning. Iraqi soldiers and police ringed
polling stations at schools, and driving was banned
to stop suicide car bombings by Sunni-led insurgents
determined to wreck the vote. Only a few citizens
were seen walking to the schools, which were
protected by concrete barriers and barbed wire.
President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim
al-Jafaari were shown live on Al-Iraqiya television
voting in a hall in Baghdad's heavily fortified
Green Zone, where parliament and the U.S. Embassy
are based. After putting their paper ballots in
white-and-black plastic boxes, both smiled and waved
to the public.
"The constitution will pave the way for a national
unity," said al-Jafaari. "It is a historical day,
and I am optimistic that the Iraqis will say `yes.'"
In Karrada, a heavily Shiite area of eastern
Baghdad, Zeinab Sahib was one of the first to cast a
ballot at a school guarded by machine gun-toting
Iraqi soldiers.
"Today, I came to vote because I am tired of
terrorists, and I want the country to be safe
again," said the 30-year-old mother of three, who
was wearing a head-to-toe black chador dress. "This
constitution means unity and hope."
All voters marked their paper ballot "yes" or "no"
under one question, written in Arabic and Kurdish:
"Do you agree on the permanent constitution
project?" Voters then had the forefinger of their
right hands marked with violet ink to prevent
multiple voting.
Minor violence was reported. A roadside bomb
exploded near a polling station in western Baghdad
as it opened, injuring two policemen, officials
said. U.S. troops exchanged fire with insurgents in
Ramadi; it wasn't immediately clear if anyone was
injured. South of Basra, three armed men attacked an
empty polling station at 3 a.m.; the three were
arrested, police said.
The charter -- hammered out after months of bitter
negotiations -- is supported by a Shiite-Kurdish
majority but has split Sunni Arab ranks after
last-minute amendments designed to win support among
the disaffected minority.
After the blackout, government employees working
through the night managed to restore electricity in
Baghdad before dawn.
The choice of target may suggest that security
measures hampered militants from carrying out the
sort of devastating bombings against civilians or
police that they have unleashed before the vote.
Nearly 450 people were killed in the 19 days before
the referendum, often by insurgents using suicide
car bombs, roadside bombs and drive-by shootings.
Iraqis remain deeply divided over the approximately
140-charter draft constitution they were voting on
Saturday. The country's Shiite majority -- some 60
percent of its 27 million people -- and the Kurds --
another 20 percent -- support the charter, which
provides them with autonomy in the regions where
they are concentrated in the north and south.
Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
called on followers to go to the polls and back the
constitution. A similar call during January
parliamentary elections rallied millions of Shiites
to vote.
However, the Sunni Arab minority, which dominated
the country under Saddam and forms the backbone of
the insurgency, widely opposes the draft, convinced
its federalist system will eventually tear the
country apart into Shiite and Kurdish mini-states in
the south and north, leaving Sunnis in an
impoverished center. Many of them feel the document
doesn't sufficiently support Iraq's Arab character.
Last-minute amendments in the constitution, adopted
Wednesday, promise Sunnis the chance to try to
change the charter more deeply later, prompting one
Sunni Arab group -- the Iraqi Islamic Party -- to
support the draft Saturday. Most others still reject
it, but a split in the Sunni vote may be enough to
ensure its passage.
The United States hopes that the constitution's
success will pave the way for withdrawing American
troops.
Ratification of the constitution requires approval
by a majority of voters nationwide. However, if
two-thirds of voters in any three of Iraq's 18
provinces vote "no," the constitution will be
defeated, and Sunni Arab opponents have a chance of
swinging the ballot in four volatile provinces:
Anbar, Nineveh, Salahuddin and Diyala.
Across Iraq on Saturday, the situation at polling
stations varied widely.
In the central Baghdad area of Khulani, where Sunnis
and Shiites both live, a steady stream of voters
entered a large polling station. All voters were
searched three times before entering the building,
including old men and women who could barely walk
with canes, and young mothers wearing chadors and
carrying infants.
"I am an Iraqi citizen. Of course, I voted `yes,'"
said Abid Ali Hussein, an elderly man with a white
beard, as he left the area. "God willing, there will
be no terrorism."
In the mostly Shiite city of Hillah, about 60 miles
south of Baghdad, lines quickly formed at polling
stations Saturday morning. Some voters carried Iraqi
flags and banners saying, "Yes to the constitution."
Iraqi police guarding the streets and imams at local
mosques both used loudspeakers to urge Hillah
residents to cast ballots.
But Haditha, a mostly Sunni Arab city 140 miles
northwest of Baghdad, where a large U.S. offensive
was just fought against insurgents, was much less
enthusiastic.
Other than soldiers and polling station workers, no
one showed up to vote in the first 90 minutes of
voting. One reason was that residents had only been
told of the polling site locations minutes
beforehand.
Just after dawn U.S. Humvees roamed the streets,
blaring the location of two polling sites in the
city. The locations were kept hidden until the last
minute to prevent insurgent attacks.
The main polling station was heavily guarded,
located up a long, winding walkway to a schoolhouse
on top of a hill. A U.S. tank, concrete barriers and
metal detectors were positioned at the front of the
polling station entrance along with dozens of
Marines. Iraqi soldiers roamed the rest of the
complex.
"I hope they have a really big turnout," said Lance
Cpl. Sam Smithson of Sacramento, Calif., as he
helped guard the entrance of the station. "The
closer they get to independence, the closer we get
to going home."
In Friday sermons across the nation, the message
from Shiite pulpits was an unequivocal "yes," but it
was not so clear-cut in Sunni Arab mosques --
varying from "yes," "no" and "vote your conscience."
In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown north of Baghdad, Sheik
Rasheed Yousif al-Khishman exhorted worshippers at
the al-Raheem mosque to reject the charter, saying
the draft was an "infidel constitution written by
foreign hands."
In the nearby town of Samarra -- another bastion of
Sunni militancy -- Sheik Adil Mahmoud of the
influential Sunni Association of Muslims Scholars
delivered a more tempered sermon. "I will go to the
polls and vote 'no,' but I leave the choice to you,"
he said.
AP
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