It’ll take about a week before we learn the results of Saturday’s provincial elections in Iraq. But until then, a really excellent blog, Musings On Iraq, has
“„[T[he early returns show a lower turnout than the last time Iraqis voted on provincial councils in January 2005. At that time, 58% of Iraqis, over 8 millionout of approximately 14 million peoplecast ballots. That included out-of-country voting in fourteen nations where 280,303 Iraqis registered. It also included a massive Sunni boycott, where only around 2% showed up. The first counts for the 2009 vote have 51% turnout with around 7.5 million out of 14.9 million registered voters participating. If those numbers hold it could be a disappointing finish as Sunnis were expected to come out in large numbers having regretted their 2005 boycott.