At least 8 political leaders thought to be candidates were killed.....

FACTS ABOUT IRAQ'S ELECTION

44 people reported dead from insurgent attacks.

At least 9 Suicide bombers struck across the country.

Guerrilla attacks began within two hours of the balloting's start. Baghdad saw eight suicide attacks, mostly against polling sites. (Fam, Mariam, "Iraqis Vote Despite Attacks; 44 Killed," Associated Press, 1/30/05)

Polls were largely deserted all day in cities across the Sunni Triangle, particularly Fallujah, Ramadi and Beiji. In Baghdad's mainly Sunni Arab area of Azamiyah, the neighborhood's four polling centers did not open at all. (Fam, Mariam, "Iraqis Vote Despite Attacks; 44 Killed," Associated Press, 1/30/05)

The big television networks were only "allowed" to film at five polling stations: four in Shi'ite Muslim areas - where the polling was high - one in an upmarket Sunni area, where polling was moderate. (Fisk, Robert, "What a bloody charade," 1/30/05)

Voting was "heavy" where expected: Shiite and Kurdish areas. Voting was "low" or non-existent where expected: Sunni and lower income Shiite areas. (Patrick J. McDonnell, "Voting Ends in Iraq," Los Angeles Times, 1/30/05)

Bush's announcement that election a "resounding success" based on guesses, faulty numbers, and fact that less people died then expected: Just before the close, one official with the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq put turnout at 72%, but later said that did not include the largely Sunni provinces of Anbar and Nineveh, and the commission said the figure was based on "very rough, word-of-mouth estimates gathered informally from the field. It will take some time for the IECI to issue accurate figures on turnout."
(Fam, Mariam, "Iraqis Vote Despite Attacks; 44 Killed," Associated Press, 1/30/05)

Lt. Col. Randy Newman, a U.S. Marine commanding officer, said success should be measured not in the numbers of voters, but by the fact there were no major disruptions by insurgents. (Patrick J. McDonnell, "Voting Ends in Iraq," Los Angeles Times, 1/30/05)

Just days before the election, Iraqis did not know how to vote, where, or who the candidates were. More than 7,000 candidates remained anonymous prior to polling day. At least 8 political leaders thought to be candidates were killed. Abu Sabah in Baghdad said, "Who says we should have elections for people we don't even know during occupation, martial law and in a war zone... And why vote when we're expected to vote for an entire list of candidates when we only know, if we're lucky, one or two of their names?" (Dahr Jamail,"Vote Where, How and for Whom?" Inter Press Service, 1/26/05)

Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq's Finance Minister who announced on December 22 that Iraq was planning to privatize it's oil and that this would be "very promising to the American investors and to American enterprise, certainly to oil companies," is also the front runner for Prime Minister for the United Iraqi Alliance - the leading Shiite Alliance expected to win the majority of votes. Mahdi, "a religious moderate and an advocate of free market policies is regarded as acceptable to most political factions and to the U.S. government."
(Antonia Juhasz, "Of Oil and Elections," AlterNet, 1/27/05 and Ashraf Khalil, "Shiites Offer Unified Slate, but Fault Lines Show," Los Angeles Times, 1/29/05)