IRAQ: The atmosphere in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah was muted yesterday, with barely 12 hours to go before voting started for Iraq's first constitutional referendum.
A few patriotic drivers had plastered Kurdish flags to their cars, and polling booths throughout the city were decked in bunting. But it was a far cry from the carnival mood that preceded parliamentary elections in January.
"I'll be casting my vote - there's no doubt about it," said Jamal Hama Said, owner of a spare-parts shop in the upmarket district of Ashti. "It's the first time in Iraq's history that ordinary people have had a voice in the constitution."
All the men listening as he talks agree they will be voting, a mirror of recent polls in local newspapers predicting a 75 per cent turnout in Kurdish areas. But enthusiasm is absent.
Copies of the draft constitution, printed by the United Nations, reached northern Iraq only three days ago. Only a minority of people say they have read it. Those who have probably need not have bothered.
In a last-minute flurry of diplomacy to persuade Sunni Arabs to participate in the political process, the US persuaded the Shia- and Kurd-dominated government to make amendments to the draft earlier this week. The draft now contains an article stating that further changes can be made to the constitution after national elections this December.
It remains to be seen whether the changes are enough to convince Sunni Arabs to abandon their threats to veto the constitution. For Kurds, they serve only to make the future less clear.
"A week ago we knew what we were voting for," said Hama Sala Hussein, who heads the Sulaimaniyah branch of the Iraqi commission responsible for organising the elections.
"Now anything could happen. The Kurds are used to being betrayed, so it's difficult to escape the fear that everything could be taken away from us."
Like many educated, secular-minded Kurds, lawyer Fala Muratkhin says the current state of the constitution presents him with a dilemma. "There are many things about it I don't like, starting with its emphasis on Islam," he said.
"But if I vote against it, in essence I'll be voting alongside people opposed to a peaceful future for this country."
He is referring to the radical Sunni Arab groups whose opposition to Kurdish demands for a federation is no less vehement than their dislike of the coalition-backed government.
With analysts describing today's vote as a referendum on the Iraqi government rather than the constitution, Kurds face another difficulty.
Thanks to an overwhelming turnout in January's elections, Kurdish parties are over-represented in today's Iraqi parliament. Iraq's president is a Kurd.
But at home in the north, anger at the corruption and incompetence of Kurdish federal authorities is growing.
Today's vote may well pass without a hitch. But for Kurdish politicians, juggling Realpolitik in Baghdad with the expectations of Kurdish voters looks set to get more difficult, not less.