Iraq Shuts Down as Early Voting Starts

Reuters

Thursday 13 October 2005

Baghdad - Iraq prepared to seal itself off from the outside world on Thursday and clamp down on movement around the country to ward off threats from insurgents bent on wrecking a referendum on a new constitution.

Aside from the armed conflict, a U.S.-brokered deal to defuse Sunni political opposition achieved at least a split in the "No" camp by winning endorsements for the charter from some - in return for a pledge to consider amendments after the vote.

At least seven people, including several policemen, were killed in attacks across the country but, as in January's vote for the interim parliament, tight security seemed to be working.

Shi'ites and Kurds - some three quarters of the 15 million voters - are likely to ensure a "Yes" majority nationwide, but a two thirds "No" vote in three of 18 provinces would veto it.

Yet though many in the Sunni regions of the west and north oppose the constitution, division among their leaders and militant threats against voters make a veto unlikely.

Announcing the nationwide lockdown as the first Iraqis cast early ballots in hospitals and prisons, Interior Minister Bayan Jabor said frontiers would be closed from midnight (2100 GMT) until Sunday. Businesses were closed for a four-day public holiday and private vehicles will be banned from Friday night.

Two attacks damaged the offices of a Sunni Arab group in Falluja, west of Baghdad, after the Iraqi Islamic Party broke ranks on Wednesday and agreed to back the constitution.

Sunni Backing

On Thursday, a second prominent Sunni group rallied behind the deal, which sets up a new round of negotiations to craft a consensus on constitutional amendments next year in return for backing the present draft and sticking to a timetable laid down last year by U.S. officials keen ensure an exit for U.S. troops.

The Sunni Endowment movement backed the Islamic Party move, saying a flawed constitution was better than the alternative.

"As a way out of this ... dark tunnel and to avoid starting all over again from scratch ... the Sunni Endowment has decided to support the Iraqi Islamic Party in voting 'Yes'," the movement, which has clerical leanings, said in a statement.

"Living under a flawed law is better than chaos and anarchy ... What counts for us is educating people to take part in the next election to produce honest people capable of changing or amending articles that are not in the country's best interests."

A White House spokesman greeted the deal as "positive." There is concern that although defeat for the charter is unlikely, forcing it through in the teeth of Sunni hostility could heighten rather than lessen the risks of further violence.

Other Sunni leaders accused their former allies of being duped, arguing that even a new round of negotiations in the next parliament, to be elected on December 15, may disappoint them.

"We reject the draft and are calling all our people to vote 'No'," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, one many Sunni leaders whose support is hard to gauge as they boycotted the January election.

At Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital, often the theater for the human misery left by guerrilla attacks in the capital, doctors as well as patients were able to vote on Thursday at a polling station set up in the building, one of some 6,000 across Iraq.

"There's been high turnout. People feel good about this new change and about the deal the political parties reached," said Hussein, a member of staff, after he cast his ballot.

Saddam Trial

Thousands of detainees, including guerrilla suspects held without charge in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and other camps, also had the chance to vote on Thursday, although officials are coy on whether this also applies to former president Saddam Hussein, who faces trial next week for crimes against humanity.

In the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, electoral official Mehdi Saleh said 97 remand prisoners voted at one jail: "Most of the voters said 'Yes'," he told reporters.

A spokesman for the tribunal trying Saddam confirmed the trial would open on Wednesday and said prosecutors had yet to decide on seeking the death penalty, as many Iraqis want.

Ahead of the vote, television has run hours of government announcements, offering stirring videoclip visions complete with rousing music of Iraqis facing up to the bombers and gunmen.

Britain, Washington's main ally in Iraq, warned them not to expect stability too soon, though: "I think in 5 to 10 years we will see it becoming stable," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.

Shi'ites, oppressed under Saddam's Sunni-led regime, widely back the constitution. Aides to their spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have issued a "Vote Yes" signal.

The Shi'ite Islamists dominating the interim government have built in provisions for regional autonomy that could favor their oil-rich southern provinces, as well as articles on Islam in the law that have angered secular and women's rights groups.

Kurds too, some 20 percent of the population, ensured the constitution preserves the autonomy of their northern region.

But many Sunnis fear the charter risks, as a result, breaking up the state. Some of their leaders warn of civil war.

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