BAGHDAD, 15 December 2005 — A massive security clampdown brought Iraq close to a halt yesterday on the eve of a key election that US President George W. Bush promised would serve as a “model” for democracy in the Middle East.
Ahead of an election that millions hope will restore stability to a fully sovereign nation nearly three years after the US-led invasion, Al-Qaeda in Iraq threatened to ruin the political process with a new campaign of violence.
Around 15.5 million voters are called to the polls today to elect 275 deputies out of 7,655 candidates.
The MPs, elected to four-year terms, will approve a new government tasked with securing democracy to eventually allow some 180,000 US-led forces to withdraw.
In 15 countries from Australia to Europe, North America and the Middle East, 80,000 expatriates were already casting ballots in a three-day process that began Tuesday, following voting in Iraqi hospitals and prisons Monday.
But a purported Al-Qaeda statement on the Internet said a “blessed conquest” had been launched to “shake up the bastions of nonbelievers and apostates and ruin the ‘democratic’ wedding of heresy and immorality.”
The group, blamed for some of the worst attacks in Iraq, said it would focus on Baghdad, northern Mosul and Sunni-dominated provinces.
But despite the rampant insecurity in Iraq, where the Pentagon said 2,150 US troops have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion, Bush yesterday promised that Iraq’s new democracy will serve as a “model” for the entire region. Bush defiantly defended his case for war and said he would pre-emptively attack another country if he deemed it necessary.
In remarks aimed at shoring up faltering US support for the conflict, Bush also accepted responsibility for relying on “wrong” intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons programs to order the March 2003 invasion.
Still, “in an age of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, if we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long,” Bush said in the fourth and final speech in a series ahead of the elections.In Iraq, President Jalal Talabani urged Iraqis to make Thursday a day of “national unity” and “a triumph over terrorism.” Iraqi and US officials hope the first full-term legislature since a 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein will draw disaffected Sunni Arabs back into politics and undermine support for the insurgency.
Sunnis boycotted a January poll but were likely now to turn out in force to strengthen their political power as a safeguard against growing federalism and a religious Shiite government. Virtually all of Iraq’s 190,000-strong security forces were mobilized, with US-led troops to provide perimeter security for polling stations.
Airports were closed, and land borders and boundaries between Iraq’s 18 provinces sealed. Until Saturday, civilians were banned from carrying weapons and a curfew was imposed from 10 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.
Only specially badged vehicles were allowed in the streets and a secret number of checkpoints were manned by Iraqi security forces and US troops.
