AFP, Baghdad, March 7, 2010 – As mortar rounds and bombs pounded Baghdad relentlessly during the early hours of Iraq’s election on Sunday, Arabiya al-Samarraie did not even flinch.
’This is our fate,’ the 46-year-old English teacher told AFP in Mansur, a Sunni district of the capital, as explosions echoed in the background and army helicopters flew overhead.
’To us Iraqis, our future is unknown but today’s bombs are nothing,’ said Samarraie, one of thousands of people giving up their day to work as voting officials for the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).
’We are hoping for a better life and I hope the election will be successful,’ she said, flanked by her son Badr, 21, and daughter Lena, 23, who were also working as poll volunteers at the Al-Neel primary school.
The entire family said they had voted for the secular Iraqiya list of Iyad Allawi, the Shiite former prime minister who is aiming to reclaim power.
The entrance to the polling centre was surrounded by barbed wire and heavily guarded. Voting was steady and with few cars allowed on the streets people arrived on foot before being searched by police as they entered.
The perils of casting a ballot were clear to all who gathered as the dull thud of mortar rounds were heard hitting the ground in surrounding areas.
’We don’t care about the bombs. The people will vote,’ said Abbas Hussein, an IHEC co-ordinator, jangling a set of brown prayer beads with his index finger coated in thick purple ink, signalling he had voted earlier.
’It is still early morning but we have seen several hundred people,’ said Hussein, a teacher of fine art. ’I expect more people to arrive around lunchtime.’
While Allawi enjoyed support from the Samarraie family, others chose to stick with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of the State of Law Alliance, bidding to become the first Iraqi leader ever returned to power by popular vote.
’I voted for Maliki because in the past two years he improved the security situation,’ said Aseel Kadhem, a 30-year-old wearing a green headscarf and blouse, seconds before yet another mortar round was heard outside.
’I am not surprised by these bombs,’ added Kadhem, a state employee at the Iraq Securities Commission.
’It was predictable that some people would try to disrupt the election.’
Roads around Baghdad were largely deserted bar phalanxes of soldiers and police who criss-crossed the capital’s highways checking permits of the few drivers allowed on the streets on election day.
The United States hopes the election will make Iraq a beacon of democracy in a region where free and fair elections are the exception, and pave the way to a smooth pullout of American troops.