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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Kurds flock to Iraqi polling stations |
| 2005-01-30 |
| IRAQI Kurds flocked to polling stations in northern Iraq for today's historic election, which they hope will herald a new era for their long-oppressed community. Pina Mohammed brought her two children to cast her ballot. "I want their future to be better than ours," she said outside the voting centre at Arbil's Rizkari school. While many voters across Iraq were hesitant to venture outside after insurgents carried out attacks, this school in Arbil's Sidawa neighbourhood saw an early rush of voters. Kurdish areas are expected to register the highest turnout in Iraq despite fears that Sunni Arab extremist organisations would seek to target their rival communities to discredit the elections. A heavy police and Iraqi army presence could be seen around polling stations in Arbil, a city which saw one of the worst Islamist attacks since the US invasion when more than 100 people were killed in twin bombings last year. Hosniya Jabbar, an 83-year-old woman, also made the effort to reach the polling station. "My husband is dead and my children live abroad but I am voting for the children of Kurdistan, to give them a better future," she said. Kamiran Ahmed, 19, was equally enthusiastic. "Democracy is great. We have deprived of it for so long and now we can finally choose the people who represent us," he said. "I hope that that our lives will be changed that those who made our parents suffer will never come back to power." Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and is thought by some to be vying for a top position in the next government, was among the first to vote in Suleimaniyah. The union and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massud Barzani are running on a common slate which is expected to perform strongly and secure more than 50 seats in the assembly. Unlike the rest of Iraq, it is not the first time Kurds in the three northern provinces have had the chance to vote in a free election. In 1992, just after the first Gulf war, they elected a regional parliament, and in 1999 they elected three provincial councils. But today's vote is likely to be crucial to the Kurds' political ambitions as the 275-member national assembly up for grabs is charged with writing a new constitution for post-Saddam Iraq. Kurdish leaders want that text to enshrine their hard-fought right to self-rule and want their existing autonomous region expanded to include the northern oil centre of Kirkuk and parts of two other provinces. Kurds will also pick their provincial councils and their 111-member autonomous parliament. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 I have a lot of Respect for the Kurds! |
| Posted by: Raptor 2005-01-30 9:38:27 AM |
| #1 |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-30 6:14:40 AM |