Security tight as Iraq prepares to vote

By Middle East correspondent Ben Knight and wires
Curfews are in place across Iraq ahead of today's national parliamentary elections.

In Baghdad, the streets are closed to all but official vehicles and will stay that way until tomorrow.

There was a one bomb attack yesterday in the city of Najaf.

The car bomb exploded killing four people near the country's holiest Shiite shrine, that of Imam Ali, the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law.

Past elections have passed smoothly, but security forces are taking no chances.

This is the second national election since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein - one that Al Qaeda has threatened to stop using military means.

The vote will help to determine whether the country's shaky democracy can end sectarian conflict and defeat insurgents who are trying to plunge Iraq back into broader bloodshed.

It will also be decisive for US President Barack Obama's plans to halve American troop levels over the next five months and withdraw entirely by the end of 2011.

It is impossible to predict who will lead the next government, with the election a stand out in the Middle East for its competitiveness.

There are about 6,200 candidates from 86 political groups vying for 325 parliamentary seats.

Voters can pick between the mainly Shiite Islamist parties that have dominated Iraq since Hussein's fall and rivals offering secular alternatives.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a Shiite who heads the secularist Iraqiya List, is already complaining about irregularities in early voting, setting the scene for possible challenges to the election's integrity.

This week, 600,000 people, including soldiers and detainees, voted early, as did Iraqi expatriates and refugees abroad.

Posted in: Top Stories