Two thirds of Iraqi exiles expected to vote by second day

AMMAN, Jan 29 (AFP) - Two thirds of Iraqi expatriates registered to vote in their country's landmark elections will have cast their ballots by the end of the second day of the three-day operation, organisers said Saturday.
"By the end of the day we will probably have two thirds of the electorate having participated with one day still to go," Peter Erben, head of the Jordan-based operation run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
"It is a very positive indication for a high turnout. We are very satisfied," Erben told a news conference in Amman.
Some 280,000 Iraqis have registered in 14 countries in the Middle East, North America, Australia and Western Europe to elect a 275-seat national assembly in Iraq, in the first election in half a century.
According to figures from Sydney the second day of voting closed Saturday in Australia "with 65 percent at the end of the day today which means that two thirds of the voters had come forward to vote", Erben said.
Initial votes from the Middle East and Europe at midday showed a turnout of about 10 percent and 13 percent respectively, with high attendance in the United Arab Emirates where the voting closed with a 72 percent turnout, Erben said.
Results announced earlier by the IOM showed that on Friday, the first day of the expatriate vote, a total of 84,429 people cast their ballots, or 29.8 percent of those who registered.
Erben said the turnout from the first day was "definitely highest in the Middle East", where voting took place in Jordan, Syria, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
"There was a turnout of about 40 percent in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which means that almost half of the registrant voters came to vote on Friday," Erben said.
The second day of expatriate voting went smoothly with no security incidents in the 14 countries, except for "two peaceful and minor demonstrations in a couple of the sites," Erben said without providing further details.
"This added to the democratic feel of the process," he said.
The Geneva-based IOM, which organised elections in trouble spots such as Afghanistan, was tasked by Iraq's electoral commission to organise the operation in 36 cities.
Voting is taking place in Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and United States.
The IOM said it will hold a press conference on Monday in Amman to announce how many expatriate Iraqis participated in the election, whose results will be declared in Iraq by the electoral commission at an undetermined date.

01/29/2005 18:17 GMT - AFP