“Despite the bombs that I heard on my way and the fact that I was stopped and searched three times, I insisted on voting,” Baghdad public school teacher Ali Salim said at a voting station. “I even put on my best suit and tie.”
US President Barack Obama expressed “great respect” for Iraqis “who refused to be deterred by acts of violence” and “exercised their right to vote.”
Insurgent Sunni but also Shia groups tried to disrupt the process, attacking polling stations and voters, especially in Baghdad. Mortar rounds were fired on central Baghdad, including the Green Zone. The death toll from yesterday’s violence stood at 38, with victims in the capital, Fallujah, Baquba and Samarra.
Still, elections were held without too many problems. When polls closed in the evening, local media focused primarily on the race between outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and challenger Iyad Allawi rather than on the violence. Mr Allawi, a secular Shiite, has promoted a non-sectarian stance and opposed confessional divisions.
Although praising the electoral process, some analysts are sanguine about its “success”, noting that the “more fundamental question relates to the quality of the political process,” said Reidar Visser, an Iraq analyst at the Olso-based Norwegian Institute for International Affairs. In his view, Iraq’s transformation to democracy “remains highly tentative”.
Now, what remains to be seen is the election outcome, namely who among the 6,200 candidates who ran for office will take up a seat in Iraq’s 325-member National Assembly.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) expects preliminary results to be available by Thursday. Final results should take longer until after all appeals are heard.
Maliki’s list and that of former Prime Minister Allawi (which includes Sunnis) should lead the count.
According to Arabic-language satellite TV al-Jazeera, Maliki’s list is ahead in Shia areas, and is expected to come out on top in Baghdad’s Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City.
The greatest challenge now will be quickly forming a government to avoid a political stalemate, which might lead to an escalation in violence, and possibly, a postponement of US troops withdrawal, a top priority for the Obama administration.