Violence fails to halt vote in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqis voted today in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying threats of violence from insurgents determined to sabotage the balloting. As he cast his vote, interim president Ghazi al-Yawer called it Iraq's first step "toward joining the Free World."

Before voting began, mortar fire boomed across Baghdad, and the world awaited the results of an event that will echo from militant Islamic Web sites in the Mideast to the halls of the White House. Insurgents rocketed the U.S. Embassy in downtown Baghdad late Saturday, killing two Americans. (See related story on link above).

Al-Yawer was among the first to cast his ballot, voting alongside his wife at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad. As poll workers watched, he marked two ballots and dropped them into boxes, and then walked away with an Iraqi flag given to him by a poll worker.

"I'm very proud and happy this morning," al-Yawer told reporters. "I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq."

The election is a major test of President Bush's goal of promoting democracy in the Middle East. If successful, it also could hasten the day when the United States brings home its 150,000 soldiers.

Voters nationwide began trickling past police guards and heavy security fortifications into schools and other buildings converted into polling centers. A spokesman for Iraq's elections commission said all of the nearly 5,200 polling stations nationwide were opening on schedule.

Turnout was expected to be low in the early hours. Most attacks occur in the morning, and many Iraqis were likely to wait to see whether rebels carry through with threats of violence.

Final results will not be known for seven to 10 days, but a preliminary tally was expected late Sunday.

Baghdad's streets were deserted at dawn. The only activity in one area was an American Humvee racing down an empty road in response to a burst of gunfire.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, buses hired by city officials picked up people walking toward voting centers to get them there more quickly.

Like al-Yawer, Iraqis will mark two ballots: one to elect the National Assembly, the other for a provincial legislature.

There were no immediate reports of violence at the polls, but an explosion was heard at the U.S. military base in Kirkuk in the north. Scattered small arms fire was heard near another U.S. base near Baghdad's airport.