Iraqis to lead vote security, but Americans will be nearby

Spc. Anthony Utter looks for roadside bombs using a camera mounted on top of his MRAP during a patrol Thursday through Baghdad. Engineers are putting extra focus on keeping Iraqi roads safe during the country’s provincial elections.


Iraqis to lead vote security, but Americans will be nearby
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, January 30, 2009

BAGHDAD — The ballots are out. Security preparations are complete. Thousands of people have even cast their vote already. As Baghdad moves into its final few days before the election, capital residents are preparing for an election unlike those before it.

"This is quite a monumental event," said Brig. Gen. Will Grimsley, a deputy division commander in Multi-National Division-Baghdad. "This is the first election post-Saddam that they’ve done with them in the lead."

"Iraqi-led" has been the mantra of American troops in Baghdad during the lead-up to the Saturday election – even as leaders circulated among polling sites with their Iraqi counterparts to ensure security preparations were in order.

Still, the Iraqi efforts have been on a scale larger than anything they did previous elections.

Local forces secured election material and shepherded them to the proper places. Local election officials monitored the sites to ensure that everything was done legitimately. Many of these officials work many miles from their own neighborhoods and face the constant threat that insurgents might target them because of their jobs.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60332