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Iraqis vote in constitutional referendum
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-15 14:32

Minor violence was reported. A roadside bomb exploded near a polling station in western Baghdad as it opened, injuring two policemen, officials said. U.S. troops exchanged fire with insurgents in Ramadi; it wasn't immediately clear if anyone was injured. South of Basra, three armed men attacked an empty polling station at 3 a.m.; the three were arrested, police said.


Iraqi President Jalal Talabani votes in the constitutional referendum in Baghdad October 15, 2005. 

The charter — hammered out after months of bitter negotiations — is supported by a Shiite-Kurdish majority but has split Sunni Arab ranks after last-minute amendments designed to win support among the disaffected minority.

After the blackout, government employees working through the night managed to restore electricity in Baghdad before dawn.

The choice of target may suggest that security measures hampered militants from carrying out the sort of devastating bombings against civilians or police that they have unleashed before the vote. Nearly 450 people were killed in the 19 days before the referendum, often by insurgents using suicide car bombs, roadside bombs and drive-by shootings.

Iraqis remain deeply divided over the approximately 140-charter draft constitution they were voting on Saturday. The country's Shiite majority — some 60 percent of its 27 million people — and the Kurds — another 20 percent — support the charter, which provides them with autonomy in the regions where they are concentrated in the north and south.

Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on followers to go to the polls and back the constitution. A similar call during January parliamentary elections rallied millions of Shiites to vote.

However, the Sunni Arab minority, which dominated the country under Saddam and forms the backbone of the insurgency, widely opposes the draft, convinced its federalist system will eventually tear the country apart into Shiite and Kurdish mini-states in the south and north, leaving Sunnis in an impoverished center. Many of them feel the document doesn't sufficiently support Iraq's Arab character.

Last-minute amendments in the constitution, adopted Wednesday, promise Sunnis the chance to try to change the charter more deeply later, prompting one Sunni Arab group — the Iraqi Islamic Party — to support the draft Saturday. Most others still reject it, but a split in the Sunni vote may be enough to ensure its passage.

The United States hopes that the constitution's success will pave the way for withdrawing American troops.
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