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WORLD> Middle East
Iraqi elections avoid violence but complaints loom
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-01 13:22

US soldiers were also out in force, but remained well away from polling centers. The US military assisted in security preparations for the elections, but said troops had a back seat role in the election day operations.

There were reports of isolated violence and unrest.

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In Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown about 80 miles north of Baghdad, three mortar shells exploded near a polling station, but caused no casualties, said police, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds stormed an election office in the disputed northern city of Khanaqin after claiming many of them were not on voting lists. There were no reports of serious injuries. The incident was part of lingering disputes between Kurds and the Arab-run central government over control of the city near the Iranian border.

Each region carried its own distinctive mood.

In Kurdish autonomous region, which is scheduled to hold elections later, special polling sites were created for Iraqis who have sought refuge from violence in other parts of Iraq. "I hope the real winner will be Iraq itself," said Mohammad Rasid, 75, who fled Baghdad two years ago.

In nearby Mosul, considered one of the last urban strongholds of al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgent groups, Sunni Arab parties urged for a high turnout to counter Kurdish ambitions to extend their influence over the city.

The Sunni decision to boycott the last provincial ballot in January 2005 handed control of Mosul and the surrounding province to the Kurds, even though they make up less than a third of the population.

"I came to take back my city for Sunnis," said Afifa Abdul-Nafaa, 81, who came to vote in a wheelchair pushed by her son.

In the western Anbar province, the Sunni tribes which rose up against al-Qaida and other insurgents -- and led to a turning point of the war -- are now seeking to transform their fame into council seats and significantly increase their role in wider Iraqi affairs. Turnout in Anbar was about 2 percent in provincial elections four years ago.

And in Iraq's Shiite south, loyalists to prime minister al-Maliki appeared to receive a boost from the offensives last year that broke the hold of Shiite militias in the key city of Basra and other places.

"When the militiamen were in charge, we used to see bodies laying in the street," said Ali Majid, 25. "Now we have some order."

Zakiya Tahir, a 71-year-old woman who cannot read, pointed to a poster of a local candidate supported by al-Maliki.

"I have nothing to do with politics," she said. "I just want to feel safe again."

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