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Baghdad Quiet On Eve Of Vote

14 December 2005 -- Streets in Baghdad are quiet one day before the 15 million eligible Iraqis cast ballots for their homeland's first full-term parliament since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Shops, schools, banks, and cafes were closed as a five-day holiday began yesterday as part of security steps. Police were enforcing a traffic ban, while borders and airports were also closed.

In northern Mosul, however, hospital sources say two police officers were killed and four others injured by a roadside bomb.

Yesterday, the U.S. military said a roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in northwest Baghdad. In Al-Ramadi, gunmen assassinated a prominent Sunni Arab candidate.

Tomorrow's polls for the 275-member National Assembly, which would serve for the next four years, will be the third major vote in Iraq this year. The first was in January for an interim government and the second was an October referendum on a new constitution.

Outside Iraq, tens of thousands of Iraqi expatriates cast ballots yesterday in 15 countries in the Middle East, Western Europe, North America, and Australia.

(AFP/AP)

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org