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Iraq closing borders ahead of voting
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-12 06:32
Voting begins Monday in hospitals, military camps and even prisons across
Iraq, launching the process to choose a new parliament that the United States
hopes can help quell the insurgency so U.S. forces can begin heading home.
Iraqi soldiers hold
election campaign posters for the Iraqi National list carrying pictures of
the head of the list, Shiite secular leader and former Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi while receiving released prisoners in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, Dec.
11, 2005. [AP] |
Iraq's government announced it will close its borders, extend the nighttime
curfew and restrict domestic travel starting Tuesday �� two days before the main
election day �� to prevent insurgents from disrupting the vote.
"We are very prepared for the elections, and we are highly determined,"
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said. "We hope that everyone participates and that
it will be a safe day. ... We are at a historic juncture."
Voters will be choosing their first fully constitutional parliament since the
2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein. The 275-member assembly, which will serve for
four years, will then choose a new government that U.S. officials hope can win
the confidence of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority �� the foundation of the
insurgency.
Although most of the 15 million eligible voters will cast ballots Thursday,
soldiers, police, hospital patients and prisoners not yet convicted of crimes
can vote Monday starting at 9 a.m..
Officials said Saddam �� who is jailed and facing trial for the deaths of more
than 140 Shiites in 1982 �� has the right to vote but it was not known whether he
would.
Suspected insurgents held in U.S. or Iraqi detention but who have not been
convicted of an offense would also be eligible, Iraqi officials said.
On Tuesday, the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi voters living outside the country
can begin casting their ballots over a two-day period at polling centers in 15
countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.
Voters must produce a passport, certificate of citizenship or military
service papers and dip an index finger in indelible purple ink to prevent them
from voting more than once.
With security so tenuous, campaigns have been waged primarly through media
advertisements, colorful banners and placards on the streets, and press
conferences before audiences packed with supporters.
Most attention has focused on Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted the Jan. 30
election to protest the continued U.S. military presence.
With most Sunni Arabs staying home, Shiites and Kurds won more than 220 of
the 275 parliamentary seats �� a move that sharpened communal tensions and fueled
the Sunni-dominated insurgency.
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