Images of Iraq's Election
Photographs by Metrography for IWPR
An Iraqi soldier stands guard outside a polling station March 7 in Baghdad. A series of attacks killed at least 37 people on voting day, making the capital’s official 53 per cent turnout one of the lowest in Iraq. Photo by Metrography. 
Incumbent Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki votes March 7 in Baghdad. Maliki has used his tenure as premier to present himself as a nationalist strongman, and his State of Law coalition is expected to fare well with Shia Arab voters. Photo by Metrography. 
Former prime minister Ayad Allawi raises his ink-stained finger after casting his ballot March 7 in Baghdad. Allawi’s Iraqiya coalition of Sunni and secular politicians challenged incumbent prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law alliance in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. Photo by Metrography. 
Cardboard kiosks served as polls such as this one in Najaf where a woman fills in her ballot March 7. The Iraqi constitution requires 25 per cent of parliamentary seats be filled by women candidates. Photo by Metrography. 
United States soldiers and army vehicles patrol the streets of Kirkuk, where residents of the disputed province went to the polls for the first time in five years on March 7. Violence attributed to ethnic tensions led to Kirkuk’s exclusion from the 2005 parliamentary election. Photo by Kamaran Najm/Metrography. 
A supporter kisses an image of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, on March 7 in Kirkuk. Photo by Hawre Khalid/Metrography. 
Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq leader Ammar Abdul Aziz al-Hakim votes March 7 in Baghdad. Iraq’s Shia Muslim majority is expected to play a vital role in selecting the new parliament. Final poll results are expected by the end of the week. Photo by Metrography. 
Iraq’s oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani smiles after voting March 7 in Baghdad. The distribution of Iraq’s vast petrodollars was a key campaign issue ahead of parliamentary elections. Photo by Metrography. 
Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, votes in the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah March 7. Talabani, 77, has been a leading Kurdish statesman for decades but his grip on Iraq’s presidency was cast in doubt ahead of Iraq’s parliamentary vote. Photo by Metrography. 
Kurdish opposition leader Nawshirwan Mustafa cast his vote March 7 in Sulaimaniyah. Mustafa, a longtime Peshmarga general who co-founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, broke away from the party and launched his Change movement last year. Change ran a tough campaign against Talabani’s Kurdistani Alliance in northern Iraq. Photo by Metrography. 
Plastic containers served as ballot boxes such as these in Halabja, where a woman and her daughter cast votes in Iraq’s second parliamentary election since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2005. Photo by Metrography. Iraqis voted in national elections this week in polls set to shape the country’s future ahead of the planned United States withdrawal from the country later this year. In Baghdad, where a series of attacks killed at least 37 people on voting day, the official 53 per cent turnout was one of the lowest in Iraq. Elsewhere, there was a turnout of around 62 per cent as people appeared to favour issues of services and the economy over sectarian bias.
