Iraqi official sees big turnout

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s deputy prime minister yesterday predicted that voter turnout to form a National Assembly tomorrow will prove skeptics wrong and exceed voting in U.S. national elections.

Barham Salih also said the stakes are enormous for the entire world, not just Iraq and nations in the U.S.-led coalition.

“It will definitely be better than voter turnout in the U.S. and the United Kingdom,” Mr. Salih said in an interview while sitting beneath palm trees outside his marbled office in Baghdad’s fortified green zone.

“And that would be a remarkable achievement given the security environment and intimidation that most Iraqis face,” he said.

The eligible-voter turnout in November’s U.S. presidential election was 60.7 percent.

While Mr. Salih spoke, insurgents battled American troops and terrorists attacked polling stations as tomorrow’s vote for a 275-seat National Assembly approached.

Explosions rattled Baghdad and gunfire crackled above the noon call to prayer.

Insurgents killed five American soldiers, set off a suicide car bomb that killed four Iraqi policemen in Baghdad and continued to attack polling sites across the country.

A U.S. Army OH-58 Kiowa helicopter crashed in southwest Baghdad last night. The cause of the crash and fate of the crew were not immediately known. Kiowas usually have a crew of two pilots.

Iraqis planning to face a gantlet of intimidation to cast their ballots tomorrow won praise and encouragement from the cleric at an influential Sunni Muslim mosque in Baghdad.

“The National Assembly is going to happen. Each voter must choose the candidate he believes in,” said Sheik Moayed al-Adhami, imam at Abu Hanifa mosque where a typical Friday prayer service is filled with fiery rhetoric, often against the U.S. presence in Iraq.

“We must choose the best-suited people, the wisest, the most intelligent and patient,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse. “The nation must choose the candidates who are of merit and deserve their vote.”

Although many Sunni religious leaders have urged their followers to boycott the vote, in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad, where the insurgency has found a haven, it appeared people were seriously considering casting their ballots.

“If we succeed here, and build a functioning democracy, the consequences are huge. Almost everyone has a stake in the process. We have no option but to try and make a difference,” Mr. Salih said.

“All our problems today pale in comparison to what we suffered under Saddam,” he said.

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