BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "Polls Close for Vote on Iraq Constitution
Oct 15 11:02 AM US/Eastern
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By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq
1014iraq Iraq's deeply divided Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds voted under heavy guard Saturday to decide the fate of a new constitution aimed at establishing democracy after more than two decades of Saddam Hussein's repressive rule.
A day that U.S. and Iraqi leaders feared could turn bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months.
Insurgents attacked five of Baghdad's 1,200 polling stations with shootings and bombs, wounding seven voters. But the only deaths were those of three Iraqi soldiers in a roadside bomb far from a polling site, and there were no major attacks reported as U.S. and Iraqi forces clamped down with major security measures around balloting sites.
The United States hopes the constitution will be approved so Iraqis can form a permanent, representative government and secure the country so Washington can start withdrawing its 150,000 troops.
In the south, Shiite women in head-to-toe veils and men emerged from the poll stations flashing victory signs with fingers stained with purple ink, apparently responding in mass to the call by their top cleric to support the charter.
But in Sunni areas in Baghdad and several key heavily Sunni provinces, a surprisingly high turnout in some areas seemed to consist largely of Iraqis voting 'no' because of fears the new constitution would mean setting in stone the Shiite domination they fear.
The Sunni Arab turnout was a dramatic change from January parliamentary election, which most Sunnis boycotted. Now they were eager to cast ballots.
'This is all wrong. I said 'no' to a constitution written by the Americans,' said Jilan Shaker, 22, a laborer who showed up at an Azamiyah polling station in shorts and plastic sandals.
In the crucial northern city of Mosul, there was a constant flow of voters all day long into a kindergarten in a Sunni Arab neighborhood: men and women, dressed at their best in suits and ties or neatly pressed veils, many carrying young children in holiday clothes.
[...]
The draft constitution can be defeated by either a simple majority or if two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces cast ballots against it. Rejection would be difficult because most of the majority Shiites and Kurds support the charter. "
Oct 15 11:02 AM US/Eastern
Email this story
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq
1014iraq Iraq's deeply divided Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds voted under heavy guard Saturday to decide the fate of a new constitution aimed at establishing democracy after more than two decades of Saddam Hussein's repressive rule.
A day that U.S. and Iraqi leaders feared could turn bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months.
Insurgents attacked five of Baghdad's 1,200 polling stations with shootings and bombs, wounding seven voters. But the only deaths were those of three Iraqi soldiers in a roadside bomb far from a polling site, and there were no major attacks reported as U.S. and Iraqi forces clamped down with major security measures around balloting sites.
The United States hopes the constitution will be approved so Iraqis can form a permanent, representative government and secure the country so Washington can start withdrawing its 150,000 troops.
In the south, Shiite women in head-to-toe veils and men emerged from the poll stations flashing victory signs with fingers stained with purple ink, apparently responding in mass to the call by their top cleric to support the charter.
But in Sunni areas in Baghdad and several key heavily Sunni provinces, a surprisingly high turnout in some areas seemed to consist largely of Iraqis voting 'no' because of fears the new constitution would mean setting in stone the Shiite domination they fear.
The Sunni Arab turnout was a dramatic change from January parliamentary election, which most Sunnis boycotted. Now they were eager to cast ballots.
'This is all wrong. I said 'no' to a constitution written by the Americans,' said Jilan Shaker, 22, a laborer who showed up at an Azamiyah polling station in shorts and plastic sandals.
In the crucial northern city of Mosul, there was a constant flow of voters all day long into a kindergarten in a Sunni Arab neighborhood: men and women, dressed at their best in suits and ties or neatly pressed veils, many carrying young children in holiday clothes.
[...]
The draft constitution can be defeated by either a simple majority or if two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces cast ballots against it. Rejection would be difficult because most of the majority Shiites and Kurds support the charter. "
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