IRAQ: Amid vows to defend President Saddam Hussein to the death, Iraqis cast ballots in a nationwide presidential referendum yesterday certain to be declared a landslide victory for Saddam. Some voters ticked Yes for another seven-year term for the Iraqi leader with their own blood.
By late afternoon, however, there was no official turnout figure and it was difficult to gauge the extent of public participation despite festive scenes.
The authorities, who tightly control the voting process, had urged voters to turn out in force to show massive support for Saddam in the face of US threats of military action and President Bush's declared desire to remove him from power.
"With our blood and souls we defend Saddam Hussein," supporters chanted at a polling station in central Baghdad as voters lined up to cast their vote.
Making good on his words, a voter pricked his right thumb with a pin and ticked Yes with blood on his ballot paper. "I vote with my blood, not my pen," he said. Similar scenes were reported at other polling stations around the country.
"This is Iraq and this is the people of Iraq," Saddam's top deputy Izzat Ibrahim told reporters at the polling station. "How will America fight this great people? How much will America lose and for what reason?"
Nearly 12 million Iraqis are eligible to answer a simple Yes or No for a new seven-year term for Saddam, the man who has ruled Iraq for 23 years through the tight grip of the military and police.
There was no sign of the president yesterday, who rarely appears in public, but his eldest son Uday did vote. Uday drove in a red Rolls Royce to a polling station in downtown Baghdad. Surrounded by bodyguards, he got out of his car, marked his ballot paper and gave it to a young boy. The boy was escorted by a bodyguard inside the station and slotted the paper into the ballot box. Uday then drove away without setting foot in the station.
Saddam's supporters began celebrating victory shortly after polls opened, dancing outside polling stations in the capital and bringing sheep to slaughter, a traditional Arab act of celebration.
The official results from nearly 2,000 polling stations are expected today, but the result is a forgone conclusion with the voting process tightly controlled by the authorities and no independent observers or other candidates.
Saddam won 99.96 per cent in a first referendum in 1995.
Officials say privately they want an even higher percentage this time, with some hoping for a perfect 100 per cent Yes result.
Appointed president in 1979, Saddam has led Iraq through two major wars and survived several challenges to his rule.