Iraqis defied waves of bomb, mortar and rocket attacks that killed 38 people to turn out Sunday in huge numbers to vote in elections seen as a test of the war-shattered state's fragile democracy.
 
Polls closed and vote counting started at the end of a day that saw long queues at polling stations as the nation staged its second parliamentary election since the US-led invasion of 2003, amid hopes that the results would see the country enter a new phase of stability and security.
 
However waves of bomb and mortar attacks rocked the country killing at least 38 people and injuring another 80 injured on Sunday. Dozens of mortar rounds rained down on Baghdad shortly after voting stations opened for an election that Al-Qaeda threatened to sabotage, security officials said. Fallujah, Baquba, Samarra and other cities across the country were also hit by mortars or bombs, many of them exploding near polling stations.
 
But the capital saw the deadliest attacks. A massive blast flattened a residential building, killing 12 and wounding eight, officials said, adding that a second blast killed four and wounded eight when another building was targeted in a further apparent dynamite attack.
 
The attacks come despite a massive security operation in place for Sunday's voting, with 200,000 police and soldiers deployed in Baghdad alone.
 
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks "are only noise to impress voters but Iraqis are a people who love challenges and you will see that this will not damage their morale." Maliki cast his vote in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" which earlier Sunday took several mortar hits.
 
The election will usher in a government tasked with tackling a multitude of problems, including still high
Maliki, the head of the State of Law Alliance, is bidding to become the first Iraqi voted back into office at the will of the people who for decades had no choice but Saddam's Baath Party. His rivals include Iyad Allawi, a former prime minister who heads the Iraqiya list, a rival secular coalition. Also seeking the top job are Ahmed Chalabi, a former deputy premier once favored but now loathed by Washington; Adel Abdel Mahdi, the country's vice president; and Baqer Jaber Solagh, the finance minister. Chalabi, Mahdi and Solagh all represent the Iraq National Alliance.
 
Al-Qaeda in Iraq in a statement on Friday threatened to kill voters, days after a series of suicide attacks and bombings killed dozens.
 
19 million eligible voters will choose a 325-member assembly from over 6,000 candidates belonging to 86 different blocs. The election will be supervised by some 120 international monitors as well as monitors from foreign embassies. More than 600,000 people including soldiers, prisoners voted last week along with hundreds of thousands Iraqi expatriates living abroad.

End item/ 129