Iraqis go to the polls in 15 countries
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-14 08:26

In Qom, a center of Shiite religious studies, Iraqis �� most of them seminarians �� also converged at polling stations, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

A group of 50 Kurdish men traveled by bus from the English town of Ipswich to London, waving Kurdish flags and singing nationalist songs at a polling center. "We want to see Kurdistan become independent," said 28-year-old factory worker Dilzar Muhamad. "We don't worry about what will happen to the Arabic people in the rest of Iraq, or about Turkey or Iran for that matter."

Aqui Al-Hirez and his 13-month-old son Mussilm show off their inked index fingers after Aquil voted in Chicago December 13, 2005. [Reuters]

Some 1.5 million Iraqis living abroad are eligible to vote at polling centers in 15 countries, including the United States and Canada. Tuesday was the first of three days of expatriate voting, while Iraqis at home will go to the polls on Thursday.

In Syria, home to 400,000 Iraqis, thousands flocked to 11 polling stations across the country, a far stronger turnout than during January's polls. Hayel Youhana, the supervisor of one polling center in Damascus, declined to give figures but said the turnout "surpassed our expectations."

Would-be voters must prove they hold Iraqi citizenship, were born in Iraq, or have one parent with Iraqi citizenship.

In Illinois, Michigan and Tennessee, election coordinators said they expected turnout to surpass January's participation.

Talal Shawkat, 55, a Baghdad native who has lived in Damascus for the past 18 months, said: "I want to vote because I see the process as free and honest."

In Zarqa, Jordan, the hometown of Iraq's most feared terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqis turned up at polling stations despite a statement issued hours earlier on the Internet by al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq and four other militant groups branding the polls a "satanic project."

"I'm voting to challenge these militants, to have a strong parliament and government that would restrain these outlaws," Hamed Al-Nasseri, 56, shouted outside a polling station in Zarqa, an industrial city 20 miles northeast of Amman.

Baha'a Eldin, 53, an Iraqi social worker whose son was kidnapped briefly by criminals after the U.S.-led invasion, said in Amman that he hoped the polls would allow for safer conditions "so we can return to our country and live in peace."

Haidar Al Latif drove 10 hours from South Dakota to a polling place in suburban Chicago.

"This is the first time I had the opportunity to vote," said Al Latif, 34, who works as a mason in Sioux Falls. He said a snowstorm prevented him from making the trip in January.

In Denmark, Soran Abul-Aziz spent the night outside a polling station in a sleeping bag. He said he wanted to be the first one to cast his ballot.

"I am very happy. I hope Iraq soon will become a democratic country like Denmark," he said, sporting a red Santa hat.

The countries hosting the vote were chosen because they had the largest concentrations of Iraqis: Australia, the United States, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Austria, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.