Iraqis head to polls in first vote since US withdrawal

Iraq’s provincial elections across 12 provinces are a big test for democracy Iraqis voted on Saturday in the country's first polls since US troops departed, a key test of its stability in the face of a spike in attacks that has claimed more than 100 lives.Voters will select 378 candidates to represent local councils across Iraq’s 12 provinces.But the credibility of the provincial elections has come into question, with attacks on candidates leaving 14 dead and a third of Iraq's provinces -- all of them mainly Sunni Arab or Kurdish -- not even voting due to security concerns and political disputes.
The elections for provincial councils, responsible for naming governors who lead local reconstruction, administration and finances, are seen as a key gauge of parties' popularity ahead of general elections next year.
However, three provinces would not be going to the polls.
Kurdistan enjoys ad hoc self-rule, separate from the Iraqi central government, while a March 19 decision delayed elections in Nineveh and Anbar due to ongoing Sunni protests and a deteriorating security situation.
"Today is a day of change," Salah Hussein, a 45-year-old government employee said after voting, expressing hope that Iraq's severely lacking basic services would be addressed.
"Security is the most important problem that all of them should be working for -- without this, life would be so difficult," university student Abdulsahib Ali Abdulsahib, aged 22, said after he cast his ballot.
Voters were searched before being allowed to enter polling stations, and soldiers and police set up numerous new checkpoints in Baghdad.
Only pre-approved vehicles were allowed on the streets, which were largely deserted except for security forces, and groups of children who took the opportunity to play football.
Despite heightened security in Baghdad and elsewhere, militants were still able to carry out attacks, though casualties were limited.
 Nine mortar rounds, one roadside bomb and three stun grenades, all outside Baghdad, left a civilian and a policeman wounded, officials said.
Every Iraqi who votes "is saying to the enemies of the political process that we are not going back," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on state television after casting his ballot at the Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone.
"I say to all those who are afraid for the future of Iraq and afraid of a return of violence and dictatorship that we will fight by casting ballots," Maliki said.
The elections, which come a decade after US-led forces ousted now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, are the first since parliamentary polls in March 2010 and also the first since US troops withdrew in December 2011.