Little Violence Reported During Iraq's Constitutional Referendum

Baghdad   15 October 2005

Polling centers in Iraq have closed after a remarkably violence-free day, which allowed millions to turn out to vote in a referendum for the country's new draft constitution.

Crowds of Iraqis gathered at polling sites long before they opened at 7:00 a.m., Saturday.

Within three hours of polls opening, more than one-fourth of the nearly three million registered voters in Baghdad had cast ballots in 1,200 polling centers.

An Iraqi policeman, providing security at a polling center in the mostly-Sunni area of Ghazaliyah, says the voting process proceeded better than anyone had expected.

Despite insurgent threats to disrupt the referendum, heavy security kept violence to a minimum on Saturday. A handful of polling centers came under small arms fire in and around Baghdad, wounding several people. There were no reported car bombings or suicide attacks.

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