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Baghdad:
Iraq has closed its border crossings as people headed to vote in
the country’s first provincial elections on Saturday since U.S.
troops departed, a key test of its stability amid a spike in
attacks that has claimed more than 100 lives.
Polls opened about 7:00 am (0400
GMT) for Iraq’s first vote since parliamentary elections in 2010,
according to agencies.
Iraqi state television showed government officials, including
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, casting their ballots at the
Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
"Today's message ... is to tell the
enemies of the political process that we will not retreat," al-Maliki
said after voting. "We will continue building the state of Iraq on
the basis of democracy and free elections."
An estimated 13.8 million Iraqis are
eligible to vote for more than 8,000 candidates, with 378 seats
being contested. But the lead-up to the vote has been blighted by
a spike in violence that has left more than 100 people dead in the
past week, and 14 election candidates killed since campaigning
began.
At least 14 candidates have been
killed in recent weeks, and schools meant to be used as polling
places have been bombed. Six of Iraq’s 18 provinces will not be
participating -- two because authorities say security cannot be
ensured, and four because of various political disagreements.
Voting is taking place at more than
5,300 polling centers for members of provincial councils who will
serve in 12 of Iraq’s 18 governorates, according to the Associated
Press.
Thousands of candidates from 50
electoral blocs are running for 378 positions. Iraqis last elected
members of provincial councils in January 2009.
The last time Iraqis voted, in
national elections in 2010, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s
Shiite-dominated State of Law coalition faced a strong challenge
from the Iraqiya bloc, which sought support from Sunnis as well as
secular-minded Shiites.
Majority Shiites have headed the
succession of Iraqi administrations that followed the ouster of
Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-led regime in 2003.
Iraqiya is running in this election
too, but it is now fragmented. Prominent figures such as
Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi and Deputy Prime Minister
Saleh al-Mutlaq - who previously banded with Iraqiya - are
fielding their own slates of candidates rather than running under
the Iraqiya banner.
In Baghdad and the Shiite-dominated
south, State of Law also will face a challenge from Shiite rivals
the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and anti-American cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr’s Sadrist Trend. A strong showing by them could undermine
support for al-Maliki's bloc heading into next year’s national
elections.
Governorate councils choose
provincial governors and have the right under Iraq’s constitution
to call for a referendum to organize themselves into a federal
region - a move that could give them considerable autonomy from
the central government in Baghdad.
They also have some say over
regional security matters and the ability to negotiate local
business deals and allocate government funds. But provincial
councils frequently complain that they are hamstrung by
restrictions issued by the central government over the extent of
their authority.
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