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Iraqis vote in constitutional referendum
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-15 14:32
Minor violence was reported. A roadside bomb exploded
near a polling station in western Baghdad as it opened, injuring two policemen,
officials said. U.S. troops exchanged fire with insurgents in Ramadi; it wasn't
immediately clear if anyone was injured. South of Basra, three armed men
attacked an empty polling station at 3 a.m.; the three were arrested, police
said.
Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani votes in the constitutional referendum in Baghdad
October 15, 2005. |
The charter — hammered out after months of bitter negotiations — is supported
by a Shiite-Kurdish majority but has split Sunni Arab ranks after last-minute
amendments designed to win support among the disaffected minority.
After the blackout, government employees working through the night managed to
restore electricity in Baghdad before dawn.
The choice of target may suggest that security measures hampered militants
from carrying out the sort of devastating bombings against civilians or police
that they have unleashed before the vote. Nearly 450 people were killed in the
19 days before the referendum, often by insurgents using suicide car bombs,
roadside bombs and drive-by shootings.
Iraqis remain deeply divided over the approximately 140-charter draft
constitution they were voting on Saturday. The country's Shiite majority — some
60 percent of its 27 million people — and the Kurds — another 20 percent —
support the charter, which provides them with autonomy in the regions where they
are concentrated in the north and south.
Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on followers to
go to the polls and back the constitution. A similar call during January
parliamentary elections rallied millions of Shiites to vote.
However, the Sunni Arab minority, which dominated the country under Saddam
and forms the backbone of the insurgency, widely opposes the draft, convinced
its federalist system will eventually tear the country apart into Shiite and
Kurdish mini-states in the south and north, leaving Sunnis in an impoverished
center. Many of them feel the document doesn't sufficiently support Iraq's Arab
character.
Last-minute amendments in the constitution, adopted Wednesday, promise Sunnis
the chance to try to change the charter more deeply later, prompting one Sunni
Arab group — the Iraqi Islamic Party — to support the draft Saturday. Most
others still reject it, but a split in the Sunni vote may be enough to ensure
its passage.
The United States hopes that the constitution's success
will pave the way for withdrawing American troops.
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