And they're off. This by Ellen Knickmeyer from the Washington Post:
BAGHDAD, Dec. 15 -- Explosions in Baghdad and Ramadi marked the opening of polls Thursday but failed to discourage early voters, including many Sunni Arabs in western insurgent strongholds taking part in national elections for the first time.
Dozens lined up outside Ramadi polling places before they opened, freed to vote by promises from some insurgent groups to refrain from election day attacks and by Sunni clerics' lifting of a boycott call that had suppressed Sunni turnout in January's national elections.
And this in a later post by Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer:
BAGHDAD, Dec. 15 -- Iraqi voters turned out in force countrywide Thursday to elect a parliament to remake their troubled nation, with Sunni-led Iraqi insurgent movements suspending attacks for a day so that Sunni Arabs could vote en masse for the first time.
The voting appeared to split along sectarian lines as expected, with many Sunni voters in the Sunni-dominated far west saying they were voting for Sunni candidates. Long lines were reported among Sunnis, most of whom boycotted elections earlier this year or were frightened away by threats.
There were no boycotts this time and insurgents were providing security at some polling places. In Ramadi, for example, guerrillas of the Iraqi Islamic Army movement took up positions in some neighborhoods, promising to protect voters from any attacks by foreign fighters.
This time, Sunni clerics not only lifted a boycott call that had suppressed Sunni turnout in January's national elections but actively encouraged voting.
"Right now the city is experiencing a democratic celebration," Mayor Dari Abdul Hadi Zubaie said in Fallujah, where voters streamed to the polls. "It's an election wedding."
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