Joyful Iraqi Exiles Vote in Landmark Election

World - Reuters ^ | 1-28-05 | Suleiman al-Khalidi

[Pharmboy]

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jubilant Iraqi exiles cast their ballots in a "vote for freedom" on Friday and urged their compatriots in Iraq to defy insurgents and do the same.

An Iraqi man shows his right index finger stained with blue ink after his
casting his vote in an Amman polling station, January 28, 2005. Iraqis
living abroad enthusiastically cast the first ballots in their homeland's
landmark election and urged countrymen back home to defy insurgents
and vote for democratic Iraq (news - web sites). (Ali Jarekji/Reuters)

In the United States, Iraqi expatriates defied frigid temperatures and long trips to the polls to enthusiastically cast their votes across the eastern United States.

"I'm 39, but today, I'm just born," said Yaqoob Al-Awsa, a painter from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who was also celebrating his birthday. "This is the first day for me. I was almost crying."

In Irvine, California, a stream of Iraqis, including older men and women wearing headscarves went through metal detectors to vote.

Talal Ibrahim, 52, originally from Baghdad, was the first to cast his ballot to a round of applause from poll workers.

"I'm very excited. I'm so happy. I think this is the least thing we can do for Iraq ... This is the start of a stable Iraq," said Ibrahim, a communications engineer.

More than 280,000 out of one million eligible Iraqis living abroad have registered to vote. Absentee voting in 14 countries will continue till Sunday, the day the poll is held in Iraq.

Peter Erben, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) program to enable Iraqis abroad to vote, told Reuters in Amman that the first day "had so far seen beyond 20 percent of registered voters casting their ballot as a worldwide average."

Lamaa Jamal Talabani, 60, who voted in Amman, said: "I have been dreaming of this day to tell my grandchildren that in the first election in the history of Iraq I was the first woman to vote."

Security was tight at most polling venues. Police in Jordan, Syria and Turkey cut off traffic around voting stations.

"People should not be afraid to vote," said Nassima Barzani, 68, proudly clutching an Iraqi flag as she voted in Sydney, where Iraqis danced and sang in the streets.

In Iran, the largest center for registered Iraqi voters aboard with about 61,000, queues formed outside a Tehran polling station. Many were women in traditional black chadors.

Iranian television repeatedly broadcast footage of Iraq's top Shi'ite religious authority Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and called on Iraqis to vote for candidates he is thought to back. VIOLENT CAMPAIGN

Insurgents bent on wrecking the poll have unleashed attacks around Iraq, bombing polling stations and vowing to kill voters.

In London, the atmosphere at the Wembley polling station was festive. People applauded as each ballot was cast, with voters grinning and showing the purple voting mark on their hands.

The election is for a 275-member national assembly that will oversee the drafting of a permanent constitution.

Many Sunni Arab politicians and clerics have called for an election boycott, citing violence and the U.S. troop presence.

"I am voting out of loyalty for my fellow countrymen, for our great Iraq, for those buried in mass graves and for our martyrs," a weeping Adel Mijbil Qawqaz said at a polling station in the United Arab Emirates.

In the snow-covered Stockholm suburb of Skarholmen, Iraqis queued before dawn to vote amid tight security.

"This is the first time we can vote with any freedom. I could almost cry," said Yousif Jamil, 52, a former army officer.

Outside the station, youths waved Iraqi flags to the beat of a hand-held drum and traditional high-pitched ululating.

In Berlin, voter Soror Hussein said Iraq needed peace, security and a representative government. "We need stability in the region and finally an end to the (U.S.-led) occupation." Some 200 Iraqis turned out to vote in Cairo, even though Egypt was not included in the IOM program. Organizers planned to send the ballots to Iraq anyway, hoping they would count.

"Even if they are not counted at least we took part in the joy of having this election today," Hazem El Youssefy said. (Additional reporting by Sydney, Damascus, Ankara, Tehran, Cairo, Dubai, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Geneva and Detroit)

[BenLurkin]