Anbar Turns its Back on Charter

Referendum day was no different than any other for the residents of Ramadi.

They awoke to the familiar sounds of mortars, shells, gunfire and rockets - the cacophany of fighting that would keep many polling centres closed in Ramadi.

There was no let-up in clashes between insurgents and United States and Iraqi forces in and around the city, capital of the volatile Anbar province.

The province - which extends from Baghdad to the Jordanian, Syrian and Saudi borders - is the largest in Iraq and has long been a centre of Sunni resistance, which US and Iraqi troops have attempted to quash with massive military campaigns over the past few weeks.

Sadullah al-Rawi, director of the electoral commission in the province, said most voters in the region could not participate in the referendum due to the clashes. The Kuwait News Agency reported that as many as 70 of 209 polling stations in Anbar never opened.

Dulaimy said polling stations were closed in the Anbar cities and towns of Ramadi, Haditha, Heit, Rawa, Ana, Qaem and al-Baghdadi. Because the electoral commission kept ballot-box locations secret so as not to tip off insurgents, many citizens who wanted to vote did not know where they could cast their ballots.

Adil Abdul-Kareem Mansur, a 57-year-old pharmacologist in Ramadi, said fighting began in the early morning of October 15. He said he hoped to vote, “but there was no sign the referendum was running".

Voters in neighbouring Fallujah, 60 kilometres from Ramadi, went to the polls in large numbers, voting overwhelmingly against the constitution. US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad visited officials in the city on referendum day in a vain effort to drum up support for the draft, said a senior official in Fallujah.

US air strikes killed dozens of people in the Sajariyah quarter in eastern Ramadi the day after the ballot. The attack followed fighting between insurgents and US forces and a roadside bomb on the outskirts of the city, which killed five Marines.

American planes also hit Haditha. Local resident Ahmed Rahim, 36, called his home the “city of ghosts”. "Look at the destruction the air strikes inflicted on people’s houses and properties. They even destroyed the bridges," he said.

The continued clashes in Anbar fueled resentment of the US presence in the region. "The Americans intend to isolate the cities western Iraq to prevent large numbers of Sunnis from voting,” said Saiq al-Hadithi, a supervisor at Anbar’s directorate of education in Ramadi.

“We’re sad about being isolated,” said Nazim Hamad al-Dulaimi, a member of Ramadi's local council.

If two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces vote against the constitution, it becomes invalid. Sunni Arabs in Anbar and Tikrit reportedly rejected the constitution, but it appeared to pass in the remaining provinces.

Imad Muhammad, a political affairs analyst in Ramadi, said early surveys indicated most voters rejected the constitution even though many had never read a copy - most following the advice of the anti-constitution Sunni group, the Association of Muslim Scholars.

Yasin Aied al-Dilaimi is an IWPR trainee journalist in Ramadi.