Millions of Iraqis braved waves of deadly rocket mortar and bomb attacks that killed 38 to vote Sunday in a general election seen as a test of the warshattered nation young democracy.We don't care about the bombs.The people will vote said abbas Hussein jangling a set of brown prayer beads with his index finger coated in purple ink, signalling he had voted in his Sunni district of bagh dad.
Election officials in Iraq have begun counting the votes .Authorities imposed a curfew Baghdad after the polls closed on Sunday to ensure the safe transportation of the ballots from election commission main counting offices.US President Barack Obama paid tribute to the courage of Iraqis who defied threats to advance their democracy by casting ballots.
I have great respect for the millions fo Iraqis who refused to be deterred by acts of violince and who exercised their right to vote today.Obama said in hes first reaction to the crucial vote.His comments came after polls closed at the end of a warm spring day that saw long queues at polling stations in Baghdad in sunni towns that mostly boycotted the 2005 parliamentary vote and else where across the country polls closed at 5:00pm 9:00am EST,ending 10 hours of balloting in which 19 million pepple were eligible to take part.Regional officials for the In dependent High Electoral Commission said in initaial fore casts that voter turnout was 50pc or more in all but one of the 12 provinces it was able to provide figures for.Full election results were not expected until March 18,and after that it will ilkely take months of horse trading before a new government is formed as no single political bloc is set to emerge dominant from the vote.A total of 110 people were injured in the attacks which came despite 200000 police and soldiers doployed in Baghad and hundreds of thousands more across the country.
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