FALLUJAH, Iraq, Jan 30 (AFP) - Iraq's Shiite majority and long-suffering Kurds flocked to polling stations Sunday and even in the Sunni Arab heartland some ventured out despite the deadly unrest overshadowing the historic election.
At a polling station in the city of Fallujah, devastated in a massive US-led counter-insurgency operation late last year, dozens of people braved insurgent death threats to cast their votes.
The exercise in democracy took place under the protection of US and Iraqi troops in tanks and armoured vehicles but voters voiced determination to cast their ballots.
"I came to practise my right and I voted for the Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein Monarchy list," said Karim Faraj, 31, referring to a movement to restore the Hashemite royal family ousted in 1958.
"I came here to vote and I think this is in the interest of my city," said Khalil Jassem, 22.
In the provincial capital of Ramadi further west -- another Sunni insurgent stronghold -- whether out of conviction or fear of reprisal, there appeared less appetite to vote.
Three polling stations visited by an AFP correspondent were all empty.
In the city of Samarra, retaken from insurgents by US-led troops last October, the head of the municipal council, Taha Hussein, predicted that no voters at all would turn out.
"Nobody will vote in Samarra because of the security situation," he said.
Election staff did not even turn up in time to open polling stations in the city centre and few police were seen on the streets.
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, the streets were virtually deserted. An AFP correspondent who visited eight polling stations in the city was told not a single voter had turned up in the first two hours.
But a few Kurds were later seen headed out to vote.
In the main northern city of Mosul, scene of streetfighting between US troops and insurgents in recent weeks, the polling stations were not overwhelmed with queues but there appeared to be a steady trickle of voters.
Men in traditional dress walked to vote along streets daubed with pro-insurgent graffiti.
In some neighbourhoods, the voters appeared to be largely Shiite or Kurdish.
Ali Hussein, 35, said he had voted for President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab who hails from Mosul.
"I want this country to be secure again. I want to be able to travel to Baghdad to Basra to see my country. I can't do that because of the security situation," he said.
Even in Hawija, where insurgent support runs high amid fears the town will be handed over to Kurdish control along with the nearby northern oil centre of Kirkuk, Iraqi army General Anwar Mohamed Amin said turnout had been higher than expected.
In the city of Baquba, which has a mixed Sunni and Shiite population, voters voiced defiance despite persistent violence, including a roadside bombing on polling day.
"We don't care about what's happening, the main thing is we vote," said one man as he and his wife left a polling station a few hundred years (metres) from the bomb scene.
Leaving another polling station, Shiite Ali Abdul Sattar said: "This election is just like Noah's Ark -- whoever is on board will survive and those outside will perish.
"I thank God for keeping me alive to witness this day," said the 48-year-old dressing in a tribal robe, amid a crowd of ululating women and grinning men.
One poll supervisor said the unexpected scale of the turnout had forced his polling station to run out for more ballot papers.
In Shiite central and southern Iraq, the turnout was overwhelming as voters seized the opporunity to overturn decades of oppression.
Mothers carrying babies and blind men helped by relatives joined the queues outside polling stations, many of them professing allegiance to Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who sponored a joint list among the majority community's main factions for Sunday's election.
"I insisted on coming despite my handicap because voting is a religious duty according to Grand Ayatollah Sistani," said blind Jawwad Shkeir, 56, as he went to vote in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
Eighty-year-old Mahdeya Saleh, covered from head to toe in a black chador robe, beamed with pride at being part of Iraq's first democratic elections in 50 years.
"I was often forced to vote under Saddam Hussein. Today I came freely to choose the candidate of my choice," she said.
01/30/2005 15:32 GMT - AFP