BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (AFP) - Iraqis turned out in force Sunday in the first free elections in half a century, defying insurgents who unleashed a wave of suicide and mortar attacks across the country that killed at least 37 people.
Rebels wearing belts packed with explosives targeted polling stations and even the home of a minister to try to wreck the election being held almost two years after former dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in a US-led war.
But with a massive security clampdown nationwide, the Iraqi election commission said preliminary figures indicated 72 percent of the 14 million registered voters had turned out even three hours before polls closed.
The majority Shiite community and Kurds concentrated in the north had been predicted to vote in high numbers in the ethnically-divided country in what is one of the most dangerous and controversial elections of modern times.
But the election commission said even among Sunni Arabs -- who were the ruling elite under Saddam and all previous Iraqi governments -- turnout was higher than expected despite boycott calls from leading clerics and politicians.
"This is the start of a new era, for the first time, Iraqis are deciding on their own future and defying the terrorist forces," Allawi declared after casting his vote for the 275-member national assembly that will draw up a new constitution to lay the framework for the country's future.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed the turnout which she said had been better than expected and marked a "huge step forward" for the country's transition to democracy.
She said President George W. Bush -- whose decision to go to war against Saddam in March 2003 split the international community -- was "incredibly encouraged" by the turnout. "He just said that this was a great day for the Iraqi people."
A group that organised 10,000 independent observers for the vote said there had been little fraud.
"Our observers remarked that in general the elections went ahead in an excellent way and there was very little fraud or violations," a spokesman for the Ain (Eye) non-government organisation said.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's representative in Iraq described the election as "transparent and fair".
But whatever the result, it will be just the start of a long haul to stability which will have to overcome more violence and political turmoil.
The election could see the majority Shiite community take control of the government in an Arab country for the first time in 11 centuries and Shiite and Sunni political parties face weeks of wrangling with Kurdish and secular rivals over the makeup of the new government and the constitution.
With insurgents threatening a long term war, the United States and the interim Iraqi government have refused to set a timetable to withdraw the foreign forces which deposed Saddam.
In a blow to the US-led forces and their allies, a British Hercules transport plane crashed northwest of Baghdad, military officers said without saying whether there were casualties.
US military choppers had arrived at the site of crash and were investigating.
Authorities imposed a massive security clampdown and tens of thousands of Iraqi and mainly US foreign troops were on the streets to counter threats by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- whose group claimed many of the election day attacks, declaring it had "spoiled the party."
Insurgents killed a total of 30 civilians and six police during on election day, the interior ministry said, with another 96 people wounded. The toll did not include suicide bombers.
But Interior Minister Falah al-Nakib said the number of attacks was "less than a tenth" of what he had been expecting, in a testament to the massive security.
The government sealed frontiers and closed Baghdad international airport. There was also a night-time curfew and authorities banned travel between provinces.
However, seven suicide attacks were staged in Baghdad, the US army said.
In one attack, a bomber wearing an explosives-packed belt killed seven civilians and two policemen outside a polling station. One even managed to get into a polling centre in the west of the capital, killing two people.
A bomb tore apart a bus of Sunni Muslims being ferried to a polling station south of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 14, police said.
In southern Iraq, Shiites who make up 60 percent of the population flocked to vote.
"I had often been forced to vote under Saddam Hussein. Today I come out of my own will to choose freely the candidate of my choice for the first and last time in my life," said 80-year-old Mahdeya Saleh in the holy city of Najaf.
Taha Lufta waited outside a station in the southern city of Basra when it opened to encourage others to vote. He said he voted for the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance "because it includes Islamists, and we want an Islamic constitution in Iraq."
The alliance has the key backing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Iraqi Shiite spiritual leader, and is expected to be the biggest single bloc in the new assembly.
Long lines of people were also reported outside voting stations in Kurdish cities such as Arbil in the north of the country.
The Sunni Arab vote was less enthusiastic. Saddam's hometown of Tikrit was said to be a ghost town, while six explosions rocked Mosul, Iraq's northern capital where officials said turnout was fairly thin.
Dozens of voters also turned out in Fallujah, which was devasted by a US assault last November.
01/30/2005 16:21 GMT - AFP