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Sunni Turnout High at Iraqi Charter Vote
The constitution still seemed likely to pass, as expected. But the large Sunni turnout made it possible that the vote would be close or even go the other way, and late Saturday it appeared at least two of a required three provinces might reject it by a wide margin. After polls opened at 7 a.m., whole families turned out at voting stations, with parents carrying young children, sometimes in holiday clothes. Men and women lined up by the hundreds in some places or kept up a constant traffic into heavily bunkered polls, dressed in their best in suits and ties or neatly pressed veils - or in shorts and flip-flops, weary from the day's Ramadan fast. ``I'm 75 years old. Everything is finished for me. But I'm going to vote because I want a good future for my children,'' Said Ahmad Fliha said after walking up a hill with the help of a relative and a soldier to a polling site in Haditha, a western Sunni town. Some 9 million Iraqis cast ballots, election officials said, announcing a preliminary turnout estimate of 61 percent. In Baghdad, men counted votes by lanterns because the electricity was out in parts of the city. Results were written on a chalkboard. Outside, Iraqi soldiers huddled in a courtyard, breaking their fast. Northeast of the capital, in Baqouba, men sat around long tables, putting ``yes'' votes in one pile and ``no'' votes in another. A day that U.S. and Iraqi leaders feared could become bloody turned out to be the most peaceful in months, amid a heavy clampdown by U.S.-Iraqi forces across the country. ``The constitution is a sign of civilization,'' Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said after casting his ballot. ``This constitution has come after heavy sacrifices. It is a new birth.'' The country's Shiite majority - some 60 percent of its estimated 27 million people - and the Kurds - another 20 percent - largely support the approximately 140-article charter, which provides them with autonomy in the northern and southern regions where they are concentrated. The Sunni Arab minority, which dominated the country under Saddam Hussein and forms the backbone of the insurgency, widely opposes the draft, convinced its federalist system will tear the country into Shiite and Kurdish mini-states in the south and north, leaving Sunnis in an impoverished center. Most Sunnis appeared to be voting ``no'' even after one major party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, came out in support of the draft because last-minute amendments promised Sunnis the chance to try to change the charter later. ``We have entered the political process now because our rights were being usurped by others who have marginalized us,'' said Sunni Hazem Jassim, 45, referring to Iraq's other factions. The bar for Sunni opponents to defeat the constitution is high: They must get a two-thirds ``no'' vote in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces. They were likely to reach that threshold in the vast Sunni heartland of Anbar province in the west. They must snatch the two others among the provinces of Salahuddin, Ninevah or Diyala, north of Baghdad. By late Saturday, Salahuddin appeared to be nearing a two-thirds ``no'' vote after an overwhelming showing at the polls in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, where some election officials said 90 percent of the voters cast ballots. There were no figures on Ninevah or Diyala, but those are considered harder for Sunnis to win. Each of those provinces has a Sunni Arab majority, but they also have significant Shiite or Kurdish minorities. Competition was fierce in all three, with some of the highest turnout rates in the country - well above 66 percent. In the south, Shiite women in head-to-toe veils and men emerged from the poll stations flashing victory signs with fingers stained with violet ink to show they had voted, apparently responding in mass to the call by their top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to support the charter. ``Today, I came to vote because I am tired of terrorists, and I want the country to be safe again,'' said Zeinab Sahib, a 30-year-old mother of three, one of the first voters at a school in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Karrada in Baghdad. In a nearby district, Kurds lined up as well, some decked out in tradition garb of baggy pants and belted vests, or wrapped in the red-and-green Kurdish flag, emblazoned with a yellow sun. ``This document serves the ambitions of the Kurdish nation and we hope then that we will be able to determine our destiny in the future,'' said Barzan Berwari, a 45-year-old businessman. In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, voting was intense. ``This constitution was written by people who are loyal to Iran rather than being loyal to Iraq,'' said Hassan Maajoun, 60, reflecting some Shiites' deep suspicion of Sunni ties to neighboring Iran. Posted by: Steve White 2005-10-16 |
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