IRAQ: Kurds voted alongside Sunni and Shia Arabs, Turkmen and Christians in Kirkuk yesterday, divided over the future of the disputed northern oil city, but sharing a hope for stability in postwar Iraq.
Typifying Kirkuk's passion and colour, Hussein Garmiyani pricked his finger with a pin before voting in blood for Iraq's first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003.
"These past years were all years of blood and I signed for freedom with my blood," said the Kurd in traditional costume.
He said he had been a victim of Saddam's Anfal campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s and that he had voted for the main Kurdish alliance, which took around 25 per cent of the vote in January's poll for an interim assembly.
Kurdish politicians hope to win three to five of the nine parliamentary seats in Kirkuk's Ta'mim province. In Altun Kopri, a village about 30km northwest of Kirkuk, near Kurdistan, scores of children waved Kurdish flags while their parents patiently queued to vote.
"The insurgency will reduce after the vote, all the problems will get solved," said Sangar Sami (18) who stood with a Kurdish flag draped over his shoulder before voting for the Kurdish alliance headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Kirkuk is a flashpoint of Iraq's ethnic and sectarian splits, with each of its diverse communities claiming rights to it.
Sunni Arabs in Kirkuk said their once-dominant minority's boycott of the January election had been an error which meant they had little say in writing the new constitution, tailored to the wishes of the Shia and Kurdish-led government.
"Sunni Arabs committed a big mistake in boycotting the previous election," said first-time voter Talal Ali (25).
He said he had voted for the Iraqi Accordance Front, made up of three Islamist parties, because "it represents all Sunnis".
Sunni Arab voter Asmael Nouri (60) said: "This is the first time I taste freedom and expression of opinion."
It was a sentiment echoed by Yasen Abdulrahman (32), a Sunni Arab engineer who said he had voted for Saleh al-Mutlak's nationalist Front for National Dialogue, which supports non-violent opposition to the US presence.
Kurds want Kirkuk included in their autonomous region of Kurdistan, a demand fiercely opposed by Arabs.
Support was also widespread for the United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shia bloc in parliament.