U.S. Iraqis Mark Ballots, History

Stepping away from a cardboard ballot box, Ashak Toma proudly waved his right index finger in the air.

The tip was still damp with purple-blue ink -- a mark by election monitors that proved the 58-year-old Iraqi had just taken part in his country’s first competitive election in more than 50 years.

“I have dreamed of this day for years,” said Toma, who came to Illinois from the Basra area last year after insurgents destroyed his liquor distribution business and threatened his family.

On the first of three days of voting, scores of Iraqis arrived at polling stations here and in nearby Rosemont, Ill., as well as others in Orange County, Calif., suburban Detroit, Nashville and New Carrollton, Md.

Immigrants also are able to vote in 13 other countries before the polls open in Iraq this weekend.

“I am born again. This is my birthday,” said Sadiq Wohali, a soccer coach from Baghdad’s Sadr City who fled to England in 1998. “This is the birth of the Iraqi state.”

At the Wembley Conference Centre in London, one elderly voter in a cloth hat stood outside Friday, proclaiming his happiness, as women in brightly colored Iraqi clothing voiced their approval.

Mohammed Hilli, a 26-year-old pharmacist who left Iraq at age 2, said the voting represented a fundamental step to a better life in his homeland. “There is no other way that will give us a government and give people their rights and essential services -- like water and electricity,” Hilli said.

That sentiment was shared by voters at the Assyrian National Council of Illinois Community Center in Skokie on Friday morning. By the time the police dogs and metal detectors arrived, there was already a small cluster of voters gathered in the parking lot.

Once cleared by security, women in dark robes mingled in the hallways with families and toddlers in snowsuits. They were led to a series of rooms, where election workers checked their passports and walked them through the voting process.

“We thought people would stay away because it’s a workday, but we’ve seen steady and heavy traffic all day,” said Kathleen Houlihan with the International Organization for Migration, the nongovernmental group in Geneva organizing the expatriate election.

About 11% of an estimated 240,000 people in the U.S. eligible to vote in the Iraqi election had registered by last week’s deadline. And many who turned out Friday had gone to great lengths to cast their ballots.

Many drove hundreds of miles and waited patiently in long security lines.

“This is the ink of freedom and democracy,” said Husham al-Husainy, the imam and director of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Mich.

Al-Husainy was among a group that carpooled to the voting center in Southgate, Mich. Security guards checked their identification as they reached the polls, set up at an abandoned retail store.

In the parking lot were vans from Ohio and trucks from Indiana and Colorado. Some expatriates arrived Friday morning, eager to be among the first to cast the ballots, which were written in Arabic.

Others had been in town for several days, staying with friends and family members or camping out at the Karbalaa center.

“Muslim, Christian -- it doesn’t matter. We are all here to help each other,” al-Husainy said. “This is a good day for God, for Muhammad, for Jesus and Moses.”

The election is open to Iraqi citizens and their foreign-born children 18 or older.

Voters at the New Carrollton, Md., polling center stooped behind cardboard dividers Friday, carefully marking their ballots; poll workers cheered when ballots were slipped into the clear plastic collection boxes.

The permanent Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, was among those who proudly displayed an ink-stained finger.

Sumaidy, who said he voted for the Patriotic Democratic Alliance -- one of more than 100 slates on the ballot -- predicted that voters in Iraq would come out for Sunday’s election despite fears of terrorism.

“I think it will seriously disappoint the terrorists,” he said. “I am sure there will be casualties, and I am sorry to say that.

“But that will not stop the elections,” he added, saying that he thought “most of the Iraqis” were in favor of the vote.

Nibras Kazimi, 28, of Arlington, Va., said some friends and family in Baghdad were “voting on their pillows” -- meaning that they were sleeping in on election day out of fear and indifference.

Others, Kazimi said, are “resolved to go” despite the potential dangers. His mother, a political candidate, had been kidnapped but was freed after ransom was paid. He declined to say what party she was affiliated with or how he had voted.

For many people Friday, the excitement over voting outweighed ethnic divides.

In the parking lot of the El Toro Marine Base in Irvine, one group of Kurdish men gathered in the cold, steady rain. They had driven for more than 11 hours from their homes in Salt Lake City.

After voting, they popped open their van and blasted Middle Eastern music. They began to dance and waved a Kurdistan flag.

Nearby, a cluster of Shiites from Seattle also began to dance. They clung to an Iraqi flag.

The two groups stared at each other. They moved close together.

Without speaking, they formed a circle. Then they swapped flags and embraced.

“This,” said Adil Rikabi, 43, one of the Shiites, “is for Iraq, united!”

Reza reported from Irvine and Huffstutter from Chicago. Times staff writers Elise Castelli in Maryland and John Daniszewski in London also contributed to this report .