Elections in Mosul, celebrating in the streets
Mosul (AsiaNews) There is a festive atmosphere in the streets of Mosul on the day in which Iraqis are called to choose their first permanent parliament after the fall of Dictator Saddam Hussein.
Eyewitnesses who talked to AsiaNews by phone said "they never saw so many people go out into the streets and brave the danger of attacks in order to cast their ballots."
For Fr Ragheed Ganni, Chaldean parish priest at Holy Spirit Church, "the situation seems to be the opposite of the last elections".
"This morning, clashes and explosions (that killed three people) have not stopped people from going out to vote," he said.
Mosul is Iraq's third largest city, in one of the most unstable provincesNininvehbecause of the activities of Sunni rebels and criminal gangs.
On January 30, voting was near impossible: only 93 polling stations were able to open out of
330.
During the October 15 referendum, many voters just stayed home.
Turnout figures are not yet available for neither Mosul nor the country as a whole. But Iraq's Election Commission issued a statement saying that turnout was high in the whole country.
Adel Allami, of the Independent High Commission for the Elections in Iraq, announced that some polling stations were kept open for another hour to allow all voters to cast their ballot.
He, too, agreed that "turnout this time was higher than in the previous elections."
Early impressions in Mosul seem to indicate that a majority of voters opted for former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party.
"He is a man of our times" seems to be the most frequent comment heard in the streets of the city.
According to one young Chaldean student, "everyone is hoping Allawi wins because his victory will be that of all those who believe in being Iraqi and not member of a given confession or ethnic group".
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