Expatriates in Utah among voting Iraqis

Utahns are joining Iraqi expatriates around the world in casting ballots in this week's parliamentary elections.

"I feel it is a duty I need to do," said Benan Zahawi of Salt Lake City. "I have several good friends running for posts and hoping, if elected, they can help."

Zahawi on Thursday is flying to Oakland, Calif., to vote. This is the second time the Iraqi native will have gone to California to vote. Last January, he was part of a group of about 50 mostly Shiite Iraqis who traveled twice to Irvine — once to register and then to vote. Zahawi believes about the same number of Utah Iraqis are casting ballots this week.

Zahawi, 50, said he believes Islam should play a role in Iraq's emerging government, but he is wary of extremists.

"All of us do hope, the first thing is stability . . . and restoring basic needs for the Iraqi people," he said. "And more than that, a government that actually rules by the rule of law, not like we had before."

Strong voter turnout was seen in polling stations around the world, including Syria, Jordan and Iran, where Associated Press reporters witnessed heavier turnout compared to Iraq's landmark January elections. Official turnout figures were not immediately available.

Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish concerns were reflected among many of the Iraqis living in neighboring countries, Europe and the United States. Voters came from all stages of their country's stormy past — those who fled Saddam Hussein's regime, and others who left amid the 2003 U.S.-led invasion or took refuge abroad from the relentless bloodshed that followed.

Iyad al-Iraqi, 22, a Sunni Arab voting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, said he hoped the elections would bring more "Muslim Arabs" to power.

"We hated living under Saddam, but at least it was safer then. Give us a thousand like Saddam but not a single American to rule us," he said.

Sunnis at home and abroad largely shunned Jan. 30 elections for an interim parliament that wrote the nation's constitution — Iraq's first free vote in decades. The result was a legislature dominated by members of the Shiite Muslim majority and the strong Kurdish minority.

This time Sunnis in Iraq are pressing for a strong turnout to build their numbers in the 275-member legislature — and the response in predominantly Sunni Jordan and Syria suggested the communities there were answering the call.

Voting also appeared heavy among Iraqis in mainly Shiite Iran, a close ally of the Shiite parties that control the current government in Baghdad. Hundreds lined up at a polling station in southern Tehran to cast ballots.