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Iraqis vote in key test of nation’s progress

AFP, Baghdad
Iraqis voted in provincial elections on Saturday in a crucial test for a nation struggling to emerge from years of sectarian strife and to strengthen its fledgling democracy.
Security for the country's first ballot since 2005 was extremely tight with Iraqi police and military deployed in force as part of ramped-up measures aimed at preventing militant attacks and turnout was forecast to be high.
But six policemen and a civilian were injured in a bombing in the mainly Shia Turkmen town of TUz Khurmatu north of Baghdad.
And in die Sunni .Arab town of Tikrit, the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, four flash bombs exploded near several polling centres, but police said there were no casualties.
About 15 million people are eligible to vote to elect councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Polling was to close at 1400 GMT but was extended by an hour. Results are expected to start rolling in on Tuesday.
Turnout is being closely watched, particularly among minority Sunni Arabs
who massively boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2005.
"This is a victory for all the Iraqis," Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after voting in the highly-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
He said an expected high turnout will be an indicator of "the Iraqi people's trust in their government and in the elections" and "proof that the Iraqi people are now living in real security."
Security has much improved in recent months, but insurgents still mount attacks on civilians and security forces, especially in the mainly Sunni Arab areas of Diyala province and the northern city of Mosul.
"The people are afraid to come to vote because of the terrorists, but I came to vote to show to the people that they don't have to be afraid,” said Mushtar Jabar, a 32-year-old taxi driver in Baquba, the capital of Diyala.
Sargun Hanna, 53, a Christian in Hamdaniyah, a town near Mosul, said she had not inteded to vote but changed her mind.
"I did not intend to go to give my vote, but 1 came today to send a message to the
terrorists who attacked Christians -- we want to tell them that we are citizens of Iraq," she said.
Saturday's election is seen as a key test of Iraq's steadily improving security and political system as US President Barack Obama looks to redeploy American troops to Afghanistan, with a target with drawal date of end-2011.
"Obviously the president will watch the results, and believes that the provincial elections this weekend mark another significant milestone in Iraq's democratic development," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.
Authorities scaled Iraq's borders, shut down airports and imposed transport bans and night-time curfews as part of a massive security lockdown for the election.
The United Nations and Iraq's Independent High Election Commission is organising the elections, with 800 international observers, including US nationals, overseeing the ballot.
More than 14,400 candidates are standing for 440 seats in councils, which appoint the provincial governor and oversee finance and reconstruction, with a combined budget of2.5 billion dollars.