Iraq imposes lockdown for elections

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BAGHDAD -- Iraq's government announced yesterday it will impose a nationwide lockdown, shutting down roads, airports and borders, to ensure the safety of voters heading to the polls on Thursday.

In a dramatic turnaround, moderate Sunnis and some insurgent supporters are calling on their followers to vote in the election, which will select a 275-member legislature to serve for the next four years. A new prime minister and Cabinet will be chosen from among the winners.

But Sunni militants vowed over the weekend that the anti-U.S. insurgency would not end until the last American soldier leaves the country, regardless of the outcome Thursday.

Maj. Gen. Salih Serhan told reporters that Iraqi forces were ready to protect towns across the country from the constant threat of bombers.

"We are ready for everything," Gen. Serhan said from his office inside Baghdad's fortified green zone.

"We are determined to defeat terrorism. We have [become] a democratic country, and we will never go back to dictatorship," he told a small group of reporters.

The general said 10 Iraqi army divisions -- nearly 150,000 soldiers -- would be involved in securing the country. Another 160,000 U.S. troops and thousands of other coalition forces will be backing them up.

Electoral posters for the hundreds of parties taking part in the vote are fluttering all over Baghdad, covering the expanses of concrete barriers that seal off streets and neighborhoods.

Gen. Serhan said all Iraqi borders would be sealed and there would be a nighttime curfew on cars as of this evening. Humanitarian cases were exempt, he said.

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq said voting in hospitals and detention centers and for Iraqi security forces would begin as early as today.