Iraqi authorities launched a security clampdown yesterday ahead of a referendum on a new constitution after political leaders hammered out a deal to try to ensure a "yes" vote despite Sunni Arab hostility.
As security forces set up barricades and checkpoints by polling stations, Iraqi detainees and hospital patients were casting their ballots, two days before 15.5 million voters nationwide get their chance to approve or reject a basic law for the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
Lawmakers endorsed last-minute changes to the charter on Wednesday in a bid to ease bitter ethnic divisions ahead of the vote, while Sunni-backed insurgents struck again in attempts to disrupt the democratic process.
Under the deal, Iraqi Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders agreed to several new elements and modifications for the draft and to the creation of a panel to consider further revisions once new legislative elections are held in December.
"These amendments open new horizons and give everyone the chance to participate in the political process and in the building of the second Iraqi republic," parliament speaker Hajim al-Hasani, a Sunni, told lawmakers.
"Today is a day for national consensus," added Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani.
The assembly gave its seal of approval to the modifications, which will serve to reiterate the country's unity and unique Arab character.
A number of Sunni parties nonetheless remained hostile to the constitution, reflecting friction that has marked long and tortuous negotiations on the document.
The constitution will be adopted if a simple majority of voters approve the text in tomorrow's referendum and if two thirds of voters in three or more provinces do not reject it.
Sunnis, who were dominant under Saddam but have found themselves sidelined politically after largely boycotting landmark elections in January, make up about 20 percent of the 26 million population.
They fear federal provisions in the draft could lead to the break-up of the country and leave control of the vast oil wealth in the hands of Shiites and Kurds.
But the US hailed the compromise, with White House spokesman Scott McClellan saying: "This is a positive step, we welcome it."
"This agreement will encourage more people to participate in the political process not only this weekend but in the future," he said.
But a member of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, the preeminent religious Sunni body in Iraq, slammed Sunni politicians in the Islamic Party for going it alone and urging members to back the draft.
"We pray to God they will reverse their decision," committee official Abdel Kubaisi said. "A yes vote lends legitimacy to the occupation."
Insurgents were more forceful in their rejection, with a suicide bomber killing 30 people on Wednesday at an army recruitment center in the northwestern township of Tal Afar, the site of several major US and Iraqi offensives in the past few months.
An attack early yesterday against a US patrol in northern Mosul killed two civilians, a hospital source said.
Inmates at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, which had held Saddam's political prisoners before making headlines last year as the site of controversial prisoner abuse by US forces, were among the first to vote yesterday.
About 10,000 detainees in prisons across Iraq, as well as hospital patients, have been authorized to kick off the vote early, although it was not known if Saddam himself would cast a ballot.
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