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December 16, 2005

The Associated Press reports nearly 70% voter turnout in Iraq's elections, mostly peaceful.

Turnout in what was a mostly peaceful election was overwhelming. Election officials estimated up to 11 million of the nation's 15 million registered voters took part in Thursday's vote, which would put overall turnout at more than 70 percent.

In the Shiite province of Najaf province, as many as 80 percent of the voters cast ballots for the four-year parliament.

So many Sunni Arabs voted Thursday that ballots ran out in some places. The strong participation by Sunnis, the backbone of the insurgency, bolstered U.S. hopes that the election could produce a broad-based government capable of ending the daily suicide attacks and other violence that have ravaged the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Sunni Arabs make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 27 million people, compared to about 60 percent for Shiites.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at December 16, 2005 07:18 PM

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