World Coverage Of Iraqi Elections

In Germany, which has been such a pain during the war, readers of der Speigel were met this morning with this news:

27 Million Iraqis Against 10,000 Terrorists

... In other words, it may be that US President George W. Bush was right earlier this week when, during a speech in Philadelphia, he said the Iraqi people were choosing freedom over terror. Some 8 million of the 15 million eligible Iraqis ventured to the ballot box in January's election to form an interim government. In October, when the country held a referendum on its new constitution, that had grown to 10 million. Today, without a widespread boycott by the Sunnis, electoral participation is expected to be even higher.

Our allies in England read positive Iraq news over their tea this morning. The Times was excited, bubbly:

The conversion [from the last election] is stunning. This time last year the only way to report on the election campaign in the northern city of Mosul was by travelling in the relative safety of a US armoured column. Insurgents were launching dozens of attacks a day. To vote was an act of great courage.

The contrast now could not be greater. Yesterday there was a party atmosphere in Baghdad. A ban on motor vehicles, to prevent the threat of car bombs, meant that normally busy thoroughfares were colonised by young men playing football. Elderly couples strolled in the warm winter sunshine. The sounds of gunfire and low-flying helicopters were replaced by birdsong and children’s laughter.

In interviews with at least 30 Iraqis, most were acutely aware of the importance of their country’s first permanent representative government. They all hoped it would signal the end of the violence and permit the withdrawal of foreign forces.

The readers of the liberal Guardian got positive reports as well:

Today, in the northern Sunni province around Tikrit - the home town of toppled dictator Saddam Hussein - turnout was as high as 83%, Reuters said. In Sunni districts of Baghdad, where polls were not even opened in January, thousands of people voted.

Sunnis also appeared to be voting in large numbers in hotbeds of insurgent activity such as Ramadi and Haqlaniya. Major insurgent groups had promised not to attack polling stations, with some polling stations in Ramadi being guarded by masked gunmen.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Dr Zalmay Khalilzad, said turnout was "very, very high".

"It is a good day so far - good for us, good for Iraq," he said. "This is a first step for integrating the Sunni Arabs and bringing them into the political process and integrating them into the government." ...

One voter, Yahya Abdul-Jalil, a Sunni lawyer in Ramadi, said: "I came here and voted in order to prove that Sunnis are not a minority in this country. We lost a lot during the last elections, but this time we will take our normal and key role in leading this country."

Throughout France, people read the AAP report:

Iraqis streamed to the polls amid relative peace in a legislative vote many hope will heal a nation wracked by sectarian conflict and bring minority Sunnis back into the political process.

Electoral officials extended voting by an hour owing to the massive turnout, which preliminary estimates put at between 60 and 80 percent, higher than in an October referendum, with Sunnis coming to the polls in unprecedented numbers.

"Turnout was very strong in all regions, even in Fallujah," a Sunni city in the rebel Al-Anbar province, senior electoral official Hussein Hindawi said. The highest rate was recorded in the Sunni province of Salaheddin.

All the reports reported the low amount of violence that accompanyed the voting -- but leave it to al Jazeera to lead with it:

A high voter turnout despite a string of explosions and mortar attacks has marked Iraq's historic general election for the first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Al-J reported only the low turn-out projection (67%), avoiding the 80% high projection the other media reported. But even al-J readers could not avoid creeping good news and optimism out of Iraq:

In Falluja – the Sunni dominated town and a hotbed of armed opposition to US-led forces - so great was the turnout compared to the previous vote that polling stations ran out of ballot papers during the day, causing long queues to form.

Entire families walked through the town's car-free streets while children enjoyed their holiday playing football.

The scene was in stark contrast to empty streets last January when the war-ravaged town boycotted elections for the transitional assembly.