FoxNews: Turnout High on Violent Day
Initial estimate is 72 percent of eligible Iraqis cast ballots; at least 36 people did in homicide bombings and mortar blasts.
MSNBC: Officials said turnout appeared higher than expected, although it was too soon to tell for sure. Iraqi officials have predicted that up to 8 million of the 14 million voters — just over 57 percent — would participate.
CNN: BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's historic election day is nearing its close with the independent election commission reporting a 72 percent nationwide turnout by mid-afternoon amid attacks and threats of attacks to disrupt the vote.
"There has been a vast turnout in Iraq," Rashid said.
NY Times: High Turnout in Baghdad Points to Early Success --By DEXTER FILKINS 8:54 AM
U.S. officials were showing confidence that today was going to be an amazing success, although they were still wary of major attacks.
ABC News: Iraqis Cast Their Votes, Despite Violence
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Iraqi Voting Disrupts News Reports of Bombings
Iraqi Voting Disrupts News Reports of Bombings - by Scott Ott (2005-01-30) --
News reports of terrorist bombings in Iraq were marred Sunday by shocking graphic images of Iraqi "insurgents" voting by the millions in their first free democratic election. Despite reporters' hopes that a well-orchestrated barrage of mortar attacks and suicide bombings would put down the so-called 'freedom insurgency', hastily-formed battalions of rebels swarmed polling places to cast their ballots -- shattering the status quo and striking fear into the hearts of the leaders of the existing terror regime.
Hopes for a return to the stability of tyranny waned as rank upon rank of Iraqi men and women filed out of precinct stations, each armed with the distinctive mark of the new freedom guerrillas -- an ink-stained index finger, which one former Ba'athist called "the evidence of their betrayal of 50 years of Iraqi tradition."
Journalists struggled to put a positive spin on the day's events, but the video images of tyranny's traitors choosing a future of freedom overwhelmed the official story of bloodshed and mayhem. An ink-stained finger marks an Iraqi woman as one of "tyranny's traitors."
She Voted!
News reports of terrorist bombings in Iraq were marred Sunday by shocking graphic images of Iraqi "insurgents" voting by the millions in their first free democratic election. Despite reporters' hopes that a well-orchestrated barrage of mortar attacks and suicide bombings would put down the so-called 'freedom insurgency', hastily-formed battalions of rebels swarmed polling places to cast their ballots -- shattering the status quo and striking fear into the hearts of the leaders of the existing terror regime.
Hopes for a return to the stability of tyranny waned as rank upon rank of Iraqi men and women filed out of precinct stations, each armed with the distinctive mark of the new freedom guerrillas -- an ink-stained index finger, which one former Ba'athist called "the evidence of their betrayal of 50 years of Iraqi tradition."
Journalists struggled to put a positive spin on the day's events, but the video images of tyranny's traitors choosing a future of freedom overwhelmed the official story of bloodshed and mayhem. An ink-stained finger marks an Iraqi woman as one of "tyranny's traitors."
She Voted!