Iraq's Electoral Commission said counting in the country's historic poll was going smoothly Monday, as millions of Iraqis anxiously settled down to wait for the results, a process that could take up to 10 days. 

Electoral officials estimate about 8 million people cast ballots in Sunday's election, a little over 60 per cent of those registered and a greater number than expected, even if there is evidence turnout was low in many violence-torn Sunni Arab areas.

"Counting is going smoothly, from what I have heard from centers around the country, it is going very well," Farid Ayar, a spokesman for the Electoral Commission, said.

"When we have complete figures on the number of people who voted in different centers, we will announce them," he said, adding some of those figures could be released yesterday.

Across much of Iraq there was a sense of accomplishment, with many who voted displaying their index fingers stained with purple ink, proud to have faced down insurgents' threats of a bloodbath at Iraq's first multi-party poll in 50 years.

Militants tried to carry out the threats, killing more than 40 people in suicide bomb and mortar attacks, mostly in Baghdad, but the death toll was far below what some feared.

While praise poured in from around the world, experts cautioned that the true success of the election would depend on whether it was accepted by the Sunni Arab minority, which will also need to be represented in the future government.

The Electoral Commission hopes to give a full picture of national results within a week, but says it will be at least 10 days before a definitive official outcome is provided. At least some of that time is to allow any complaints about voting violations to be heard.

With foreign monitors mostly absent, it was impossible to assess the fairness of the election or accuracy of the turnout.

But the United Nations' election chief in Iraq said he was encouraged by what he had seen.

"If the results are confirmed -- and the only reason to be cautious is the lack of a complete picture -- then it is very good news," Carlos Valenzuela said.

"The challenge is for the results to be accepted by the Sunni (Arab) minority."

While in some areas of the Sunni heartland north and west of Baghdad, including the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah, many queued through the day to vote, in other parts, such as Baiji, Ramadi and Samarra, there was almost no turnout.

Counting in Najaf

Vote counting began by candle light amid power cuts in Iraq's Shi'ite shrine city Najaf on Sunday.

Six electoral officials sat on the floor of a classroom at Akkadh middle school unfolding ballot papers as candles flickered in the gloom. They sorted the ballots into neat piles, while two observers from competing parties watched hawk-eyed.

Electricity shortages continue to plague Iraq, 22 months after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

There were no independent Iraqi monitors to view the Najaf count, let alone international observers, but the school's voting coordinator said everything was being done by the book.

"We should finish counting today, God willing," Haider Cheychan said. "Then the results go to the local commission, which sends them to Baghdad. We do not announce any results."

The streets of Najaf, south of Baghdad, emptied as night fell, and poll workers began the painstaking task of counting votes after a hectic day helping eager first-time voters.

Najaf residents turned out in force, many choosing a slate led by Shi'ite Muslims that was drawn up under the auspices of Iraq's most revered cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The alliance is expected to dominate the polls.

In contrast to Baghdad and many Sunni areas to the north and west of the capital, where fear and election-day attacks deterred some voters, voting in Najaf was trouble-free.

"We estimate 85 to 90 per cent participated in the elections in Najaf, according to our registers so far," Bushra Khadem, who heads the Electoral Commission in Najaf, said before polls.

Allawi's call

After the landmark elections closed yesterday, came the interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi's first public speech calling for reconciliation in the country.

He has vowed to unite the country's competing ethnic and religious groups yesterday.

"Starting from today, I will begin a new national dialogue to ensure all Iraqis have a voice in the new government," Allawi told reporters, speaking at a conference center once used by Saddam Hussein and his officials.

"The whole world is watching us. As we worked together yesterday to finish dictatorship, let us work together towards a bright future - Sunnis and Shi'ites, Muslims and Christians, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen," Allawi said.

The call was an attempt to seize the momentum created by Sunday's poll.

But although Iraqis queued up enthusiastically to cast their ballots in many places, numbers were low in Sunni Arab areas where the insurgency is strongest -- highlighting the dangerous communal rifts facing a new government.

"It is time to put the divisions of the past behind us and work together to show the world the power and potential of this great country," said Allawi, who some believe will be renamed prime minister in the next government.

Shi'ites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population, are widely expected to have won most votes in the election, and officials in the top Shi'ite-led coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, have already claimed a degree of victory.

But Shi'ite leaders were quick to reassure rivals that they plan to include the Sunni minority, dominant during Saddam's 35-year rule, in the new government.

"We are looking at ways of including Sunnis," said Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, a former oil minister and candidate on the United Iraqi Alliance list.

"I doubt very much Iraq will witness a civil war in the short or long run. We reassure our brothers that any step Iraq takes must include all parts of Iraq... No one can be left out."

Crash kills 10 Britons

Although Iraq's politics achieved landmark development with the historic elections, its security has not embraced breakthrough as violence still continued.

Ten British military personnel are missing, believed dead, after a transport plane crashed in Iraq on Sunday, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said yesterday.

Hoon said in a statement he was aware of reports the plane may have been shot down but added: "We are not in a position to come to any conclusions until the investigation is complete."

An Iraqi militant group claimed responsibility for downing the plane. The Ansar al-Islam group said in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site Sunday that its fighters tracked the aircraft, "which was flying at a low altitude, and fired an anti-tank missile at it."

Captain David Orwin, a British military spokesman in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, told Britain's Press Association News Agency that the crash site had been secured by US and British forces.

A senior US military officer in Iraq said the Royal Air Force Hercules C-130 aircraft, en route from Baghdad to the city of Balad, crashed 40 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, adding that the plane's wreckage was scattered over a large area.

The Ministry of Defense in London said the crash occurred 30 kilometers northwest of the Iraqi capital at 5:25 PM local time (1425GMT).

Britain, America's top ally in the coalition, has 9,000 troops in Iraq, mostly in the south of the country near Basra. British officials haven't said why the Hercules was flying north of Baghdad.

One of the dead was a serviceman with joint British-Australian citizenship, Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel, the Australian Government said.

In another development, Iraqi security forces detained more than 200 suspected insurgents, including four Arab foreigners, in a crackdown that helped reduce attacks during Sunday's election, the interior minister said yesterday.

"What happened yesterday was the result of the security plans put in place by the Interior Ministry and Iraq's security forces for the election," Falah al-Naqib told reporters.

(China Daily February 1, 2005)