Iraq conducted regional elections today, except in heavily Sunni areas deemed security risks by the Shi’ite-led central government. Several bombs were detonated at polling centers around the country, but many of them failed to cause any casualties. Overall, it was mostly a peaceful election day. However, at least nine people were killed and eight more were wounded.
Disgruntled voters burned ballot boxes in Diyala province after finding their names missing from electoral lists. A vehicle curfew kept voting light in Baghdad itself. And, an al-Ahrar party leader claims members of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s party assaulted him as he made his way to a polling station in Karbala.
Five gunmen and three bystanders were killed when a bomb their were planting in Iskandariya exploded.
Mortars struck a polling center in Latifiya and wounded four people, including a policeman.
An I.E.D killed a Peshmerga officer in Kirkuk.
At a vegetable market in Hawija, two brothers were wounded while planting a bomb.
A rocket at a polling station in Tikrit wounded one civilian.
A businessman was kidnapped in Falluja.
In Mussayab a mortar shell wounded a civilian when it hit his home.
