IRAQ: The overwhelmingly Shia population of Basra, Iraq's second city, flocked to polling stations yesterday in a celebratory mood, defying a series of mortar explosions as well as rumours that the city's water system had been poisoned.
Whole families turned out, with children accompanying adults to witness the first multi-party election in Iraq for more than half a century, a poll in which the Shia are expected to assert their numerical superiority after decades of being marginalised and politically dominated by the minority Sunni Arabs.
On streets lined with police and national guardsmen, groups of men and women proudly held up index fingers that had been dipped in indelible purple ink as a deterrent to repeat voting.
Unlike the situation in other parts of Iraq, attempts by insurgents to intimidate the population into staying at home clearly failed. As polling stations closed, a sample of three visited by the Financial Times had registered turnout above 70 per cent.
"It is like Eid, it's a celebration," said Mr Jassim Mohamed Jassim, a monitor for the Islamic Dawa political party at a polling centre near the docks in Basra.
Outside, hundreds of men and as many women queued in orderly, almost ceremonial fashion. Some were physically disabled; among them were a blind man guided by his nephew and a woman whose father had died the night before.
In poorer outlying districts, thousands thronged the streets holding tribal banners and chanting.
The huge turnout in these areas is likely to mainly benefit candidate "list 169", designated on ballots by that number, which is dominated by the main Shia Islamist parties. Many of its leaders have recently returned from exile in Iran.
Among the Shia, list 169 has been boosted by the perception that it is backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest-ranking Shia cleric in Iraq, though Mr Sistani has not publicly endorsed any candidates.
But yesterday's vote is the culmination of a campaign by him to bring democratic elections to Iraq, efforts which have frequently placed him at odds with the coalition since the end of the war. While US leaders often appeared less than eager for elections to be held, Shia leaders have made clear their view that a national vote would pave the way for the Shia to overturn decades of Sunni domination.
List 169's main rival among better-educated Iraqis, meanwhile, is the list put forward by Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister, whose own coalition is largely secular.
"We are looking for a government that will serve the Iraqi people in the way that they deserve," said Ms Ahlam Hamadi, a mother of four who cast her ballot for Mr Allawi's list in one of Basra's better-off neighbourhoods. "I was not afraid to come out. I was happy."
Five blasts could be heard in Basra between 8 and 10.30 in the morning. Rumours also spread overnight that the water system had been poisoned.
Gen Hassan Swadi al-Saad, the provincial chief of police, said there were no casualties in the attacks and that the Iraqi National Guard had arrested two men with a mortar. As voting petered out in the late afternoon, dozens of impromptu football matches started up on rubbish-strewn wastelands and roads emptied of cars for election day. - (Financial Times)