- Title: VARIOUS: IRAQI EXILES VOTE IN LANDMARK ELECTIONS.
- Date: 28th January 2005
- Summary: (W5) SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (JANUARY 28, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/MV: EXPATRIATE IRAQIS WAITING OUTSIDE POLLING STATION TO VOTE IN IRAQ'S ELECTION (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. MV/CU: SECURITY OFFICERS CHECKING VOTERS WEARING ASSYRIAN DRESS WITH METAL DETECTORS (2 SHOTS) 0.16 3. MV: CHILDREN IN ASSYRIAN CLOTHES FOLLOW THEIR PARENTS INTO POLLING BOOTH 0.20 4. VARIOUS: IRAQI MAN REGISTERING WITH OFFICIALS TO VOTE; MAN SIGNING NAME ON VOTING ROLL, PEOPLE CLAPPING; MAN IN ASSYRIAN CLOTHES PUTTING VOTE IN BALLOT BOX; WOMAN VOTER PUTTING FINGER IN INK AND VOTING (10 SHOTS) 1.07 (BN6) TEHRAN, IRAN (JANUARY 28, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 5. GV: EXTERIOR OF POLLING STATION 1.15 6. MV/CU/GV: IRAQI VOTERS QUEUING INSIDE; VOTERS WITH BALLOT PAPERS; VOTING STATION INTERIOR (4 SHOTS) 1.38 7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) IRAQI VOTER JOMEH HASSAN SAYS: "I'd love to return to my own country. I am voting for the freedom of my country and I hope to be able to return and help with its reconstruction." 1.45 8. MV/CU/GV/PAN: VOTING (3 SHOTS) 2.34 (BN8) AMMAN, JORDAN (JANUARY 28, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. GV/MV: EXTERIOR OF POLLING STATION, VOTERS LINING UP TO GO IN (2 SHOTS) 2.46 10. GV/PAN/CU: VOTER LAMAA JAMAL TALABANI CASTING HER VOTE 3.01 11. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) 60-YEAR-OLD VOTER LAMAA JAMAL TALABANI, SAYING: "I have been waiting for this day. I have been dreaming of this day to tell my grandchildren that in the first election in the history of Iraq, I was the first woman to vote." 3.25 12. LV/GV: JORDANIAN POLICE OUTSIDE POLLING STATION (2 SHOTS) 3.38 (BN10) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (JANUARY 28, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. LV/GV: EXTERIORS OF POLLING STATION WITH SECURITY GUARDS AT ENTRANCE; PEOPLE ENTERING POLLING STATION (3 SHOTS) 3.58 14. MV/CU: PEOPLE PICKING UP BALLOT PAPERS TO VOTE; WOMAN SHOWING HER PASSPORT AND VOTING (5 SHOTS) 5.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 12th February 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA/ TEHRAN, IRAN/ AMMAN, JORDAN/ DAMASCUS, SYRIA
- City:
- Country: Iran Australia Jordan Syria
- Reuters ID: LVA6YQYO19M7FNM2T1G6E5I0AM8H
- Story Text: Iraqi exiles vote in landmark elections.
Iraqis living abroad cast the first ballots on
Friday (January 30) in their homeland's landmark election.
Iraqis in Australia were the first to cast their votes.
In western Sydney security at the polling venue was
light, with voters being checked only with hand-held metal
detectors, and election officials said there had been no
security incidents at any of the nine polling centres in
Australia.
Exiles from Iraq's Christian Assyrian community,
dressed in ornately embroidered traditional costumes with
feathered caps, voted enthusiastically for the first time.
Out-of-country voting by Iraqis will be conducted
between Jan. 28 and Jan. 30, but election officials say
there has been a low voter registration from the estimated
one million eligible Iraqi exiles.
Only 12,000 Iraqi expatriates voters registered in Australia where
there are 40,000 eligible voters.
In Iran, the largest centre for registered Iraqi voters
abroad with about 61,000, queues formed outside a Tehran
polling station.
Security was tight at polling venues in Syria, Jordan,
and Turkey with police cutting off traffic with roadblocks.
Guards with metal detectors searched everyone going into
the stations.
Despite being hundreds of miles from Iraq, many
election administrators and voters in the Amman and
Damascus appeared nervous.
Most refused to have their picture taken and did not
give their names to reporters, but one woman wanted it to
be known that she had voted.
"I have been waiting for this day. I have been
dreaming of this day to tell my grandchildren that in the
first election in the history of Iraq, I was the first
woman to vote," Lamaa Jamal Talabani said at a polling
station in Amman.
Voter turnout was light in the early hours in most
countries with organisers expecting things to pick up over
the weekend.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
which is running the out-of-country voting said voting in
the centres that had opened worldwide was problem-free and
running smoothly.
There are 280,303 registered Iraqi voters abroad, out
of around 1 million eligible expatriates. Absentee voting
in 14 countries will continue till Sunday (January 30), the
day the poll is held in Iraq.
The election is for a 275-member national assembly that
will oversee the drafting of a permanent constitution.
Many Sunni Arab politicians and clerics have called for
an election boycott, citing violence and the U.S. troop
presence.
Insurgents bent on wrecking the poll have unleashed
attacks around Iraq, bombing polling stations and vowing to
kill voters.
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