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Shiites Turn Out in Force
 Lamia Radi, Agence France Presse Mothers carrying babies and blind men helped by relatives were among thousands of Shiites who rushed to vote across southern Iraq yesterday, driven by fervor to shake off decades of oppression. "I insisted on coming despite my handicap because voting is a religious duty according to Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani," Iraq's Shiite religious leader, said blind Jawwad Shkeir, 56, as he went to vote in the holy city of Najaf. Eighty-year-old Mahdeya Saleh, covered from head to toe in a black chador robe, beamed with pride at being part of Iraq's first democratic elections in 50 years. "I was often forced to vote under Saddam Hussein. Today I came freely to choose the candidate of my choice. This is the first and last time in my life," to vote, she said. Long queues of voters desperate to end those miserable decades began forming outside polling stations from the minute they opened at 0400 GMT. Samir Hassan lost his leg in a Baghdad bombing but that did not stop him voting in Iraq's election yesterday, determined to defy the men who maimed him. "I would have crawled here if I had to. I don't want terrorists to kill other Iraqis like they tried to kill me," said Hassan, 32, at a polling station in western Baghdad. Posted by: Fred 2005-01-31 |
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