1/31/2005 12:15:00 PM GMT
Hebrew media reported that an Israeli reporter of Iraqi origin voted in Iraq’s general elections in Amman.
The Daily ‘Ma’ariv’ released a picture of Jacky Hoji, its correspondent for Arab Affairs while casting his ballot at one of Iraq’s polling centers in Jordan.
According to the Hebrew paper, Jacky arrived in Amman with an Iraqi passport that belongs to his grandfather and Israeli passports of his father and himself.
After being questioned, the Israeli man was permitted to participate in the Iraqi elections and cast his ballot, the paper said.
Jacky Hoji told the Israeli radio that he voted for a pro-western party that he refused to identify, saying that disclosing the name of the party would have a negative impact on the party as an Israeli voted for it.
But Jacky wasn’t the only Israeli who voted in the Iraqi elections, the country’s first elections in half a century, Jacky said that another Israeli, working as a reporter for Ha’aretz Daily also cast his vote along with others in Iraqi polling stations in London and Washington
According to Iraqi elections officials, the turnout amongst the 14 million eligible voters appeared higher than the 57 percent which had been predicted. However, it will be some time before the final turnout figure will be confirmed.
The elections' final results could take up to seven to ten days before they are known, the election commission said.
Some stations didn't open
The poll booths in the main cities of the so-called Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad, were largely deserted particularly in Fallujah, Ramadi and Beiji. While in Baghdad's mainly Sunni area of Azamiya according to the residents of the area the four polling centers did not open at all.
It's believed that a low Sunni turnout could undermine the new government that will eventually emerge as a result of the vote and as such would increase the tension amongst Iraq's ethnic, religious and cultural groups.
The election will create a 275-member National Assembly and 18 provincial legislatures. The assembly will draw up the country's permanent constitution and will select a president and two deputy presidents, who in turn will name a new prime minister and Cabinet to serve for 11 months until new elections are held.
Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is expected to win a large number of the votes from amongst the 111 candidate lists. However, no faction is expected to win an outright majority, which could possibly mean that it will be weeks of political deal-making and wrangling before a new prime minister is chosen.