More than two-thirds of Iraqi voters turned out in the country's landmark election, according to first estimates yesterday, spawning hope for the war-battered nation and boosting the prospect of drawing minority Sunnis into the political process.
Millions of votes were being counted after Thursday's election for the first full-term Iraqi government since the ouster of former president Saddam Hussein in 2003, which witnessed minimal violence in stark contrast to a vote in January.
"The number of those who took part in the ballot should be between 10 and 11 million voters, according to our first estimates," said senior electoral official Farid Ayar.
A figure of 11 million voters would put turnout at around 70 percent. Final results, however, are not expected for at least two weeks.
Voting was extended briefly because of the extremely high turnout, with strong participation among the Sunni Arab minority that was dominant under Saddam but which boycotted the January poll for a transitional government.
"Iraqis are ready to determine their future by democratic means through the ballot box," said Kamiran Garadghi, spokesman for Iraq's first Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani.
Global leaders hailed the vote, which many hope will end the insurgency raging since Saddam's downfall in April 2003 and pave the way for an exit of US-led foreign troops.
"This is a major step forward in achieving our objective, which is having a democratic Iraq, a country able to sustain itself and defend itself," said US President George W. Bush.
The costly US-led 2003 invasion and its aftermath have killed around 2,155 US soldiers, causing Bush's poll ratings to plunge. He admitted on Wednesday that the war had been based on faulty intelligence.
The number of Iraqi voters appeared to have surpassed that registered in an October referendum, and Sunni Arabs came out to cast ballots in huge numbers while insurgent violence was largely curbed by a massive security operation.
"I would hope that once the results are announced ... everyone will accept them," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan added.
Standards met
An international monitoring mission stationed in the country said the election had "generally" met international standards, and hailed the organizers for meeting a "difficult challenge."
A growing force in the election was former prime minister Ayad Allawi, who headed a non-sectarian coalition that reached out to Sunnis and also attracted the votes of secular Shiites in urban areas.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said that if his United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) wins the election it will carve out a role for supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"There is nothing that risks them substituting the pen for the gun," Jaafari said.
The UIA was dominant in five southern Shiite provinces, according to non-official results obtained from electoral and party sources.
In the western al-Anbar region where the insurgency is based, officials estimated turnout of 85-95 percent in Fallujah, a former center of rebel activity -- where some polling stations even ran out of ballot papers.
"Turnout was very strong in all regions, even in Fallujah," electoral official Hussein Hindawi said on Thursday.
The commission also forecast turnout for the hotspot of Ramadi at 75-80 percent.
7,655 candidates
A total of 15.5 million Iraqis were called to vote for a four-year 275-member parliament -- choosing from 7,655 candidates and 307 political entities, nearly triple the number that stood in January.
Iraqis, the elderly and infirm included, walked to polling stations because of a vehicle ban aimed at curbing any car bomb attacks, one of a series of security measures including a weapons ban, border closures and an extended curfew.
But in a potentially embarrassing development, CNN television quoted a senior Iraqi security official as saying that Iraqi security forces had last year captured the infamous insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, but released him because they did not know who he was.
Participation rates in the election for a transitional government in January was 59 percent and at an October referendum on a new constitution, 63 percent.
The new parliament will appoint a president and two vice presidents. The presidential council will then have 15 days to name a prime minister, who then has 30 more days in which to form a cabinet with parliamentary approval.
On Tuesday, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar warned that an operational government still might not be finalized until April.
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