AS RIGHT AND LEFT HAVE CONSTANTLY TOLD US...:

Iraqis brave bombs and rockets to go to the polls: Turnout expected to be high in parliamentary election despite rocket and mortar attacks that killed 25 in Baghdad today (Martin Chulov, 3/07/10, guardian.co.uk)

Despite the violence, voter turnout seemed to be within an anticipated range of 40-60% of the 19 million people registered to vote across the country. Voting also appeared to be steady in Sunni areas that boycotted the 2005 poll and then led an insurgent revolt in the face of lost political ground.

"Today I feel much hope for my country," said 70-year-old Qadimeyah Hussein, as she sat outside a polling station in the former battlefield suburb of Adhamiyeh. "We have suffered a lot and I am going to die soon, but I voted today for my grandson's future. We will change the devil and his shirt because now we have knowledge about the process that we didn't have before," she said.

At the Ottman Obeidi primary school nearby, polling booth director Saad Majid said 676 people among 3,150 registered voters had turned up by midday. However, across town in the mixed Sunni and Christian neighbourhood of Zayouni, only 350 of 3,500 had arrived by the same time.

Natasha al-Rathi, a Czech immigrant who arrived in Iraq 43 years ago, described today's ballot as a watershed that would introduce more decisive leadership after five turbulent years. "We have more hope this time than ever before," she said, minutes before another mortar landed nearby.

Old faces are expected to feature prominently, with the political list of former interim prime minister and post-invasion favourite of Britain, Iyad Allawi polling well, according to early indications. However, the party of Ahmed Chalabi, another one-time exile under Saddam and former Pentagon pin-up boy, is not expected to perform strongly.

Allawi's secular Iraqiya list is likely to feature in post-election horse-trading to nominate a prime minister. The 65-year-old was a popular choice in the largely Sunni enclave of Adhimeyah, where many people were willing to say they had voted for him.

"I'm for Allawi," said student Mohammed Maher, 20. "Saddam worked for himself here and deprived Iraq of everything."

An unemployed Arabic tutor, Sumr Hussein, 23, said she had studied each candidate and what they were offering. "I'm sure they won't be sectarian again," she said. "There are different voices within each list and this is healthy."

...responsibility for this healthy Islamic democracy belongs to just two men: George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 7, 2010 9:26 AM