|
|
January 30, 2005
 |
| 8 million Iraqis voted today |
|
|
 |
Polling officially closed across Iraq at 5:00p.m Sunday with a better than expected voter turnout in the landmark elections, the Independent Electoral Commission said. Bloomberg reports as many as 8 million Iraqis voted today for a National Assembly in defiance of attacks and threats of violence by insurgents, and carried out the country's first democratic election since 1953. There were about 13 million registered Iraqi voters. "The streets of Baghdad were not soaked with blood," said Farid Ayar, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, at a Baghdad news conference broadcast. The commission said turnout was about 60 percent, down from an earlier estimate of 72 percent. Iraqis voted for a 275-member assembly that will draft a permanent constitution and prepare for a general election at the end of the year. Secular parties such as interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List coalition and the Kurdish Alliance may have gained the most support, according to interviews with voters and an opinion poll. Vote count has begun at some 5,300 polling centers across the country and a final result of the elections was expected in at least 10 days.
|
|
|
|
