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Iraq shuts down for Thursday's vote
Iraq has ground to a halt amid strict security in advance of Thursday's parliamentary elections, marking the end of weeks of fierce political campaigning and violence.
An eerie sense of calm has descended on Baghdad as shops, schools, banks and cafes have closed and most of the city's seven million residents are staying at home.
A five-day holiday began on Tuesday as part of security
steps brought in before Iraqis go to the polls. All of Iraq's borders have been closed.
The 15.5 million people elgible to vote will elect 275 parliamentary deputies, each with a four-year mandate.
The vote is the latest attempt to further Iraq's transition to a full democracy and eventually allow US-led forces to leave.
Iraqi expatriates in 15 countries across the world are already casting their ballots in a three-day process that began on Tuesday.
Voters in Iraq's hospitals and prisons were the first to cast their ballot papers on Monday.
Sunni hope
Many Iraqis and foreign diplomats hope that the first full-term
legislature since the 2003 invasion will draw disaffected Sunni Arabs back into politics.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FA24F0F2-E207-4254-AC96-CC414BD80115.htm
A five-day holiday began on Tuesday as part of security
steps brought in before Iraqis go to the polls. All of Iraq's borders have been closed.
The 15.5 million people elgible to vote will elect 275 parliamentary deputies, each with a four-year mandate.
The vote is the latest attempt to further Iraq's transition to a full democracy and eventually allow US-led forces to leave.
Iraqi expatriates in 15 countries across the world are already casting their ballots in a three-day process that began on Tuesday.
Voters in Iraq's hospitals and prisons were the first to cast their ballot papers on Monday.
Sunni hope
Many Iraqis and foreign diplomats hope that the first full-term
legislature since the 2003 invasion will draw disaffected Sunni Arabs back into politics.
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FA24F0F2-E207-4254-AC96-CC414BD80115.htm
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On the last day of campaigning before the Iraqi election, 1,000 Sunni clerics called on their community to vote. Their appeal was marred, however, by the murder of a Sunni candidate, Mizhar al-Dulaimi, who was shot dead as he campaigned in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
The parliamentary election in Iraq tomorrow is expected to confirm that Shia Arabs are the dominant community after centuries of rule by the Sunni. They can win because at least 15 to 16 million of the 25 to 26 million Iraqis are Shia Muslims while there are only about five million Sunni Arabs and five million Kurds.
It is a historic change. Immediately after the American invasion in 2003, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the immensely influential Shia clerical leader, insisted that the occupiers hold an election, which they were initially reluctant to do. They knew that the Shia majority would be the inevitable victors.
Read More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article333029.ece