IRAQ: Two-thirds of registered voters in the Iraqi capital say they will cast their ballots in the January 30th election despite the threat of violence, an independent Iraqi newspaper survey found yesterday.
A high turnout in Baghdad, a city of five to six million people, could raise the credibility of polls, which are expected to be marred by the suicide bombings of insurgents bent on sabotaging the vote in the country of 27 million.
US and Iraqi officials have already said that four provinces covering large swathes of Iraq, including areas just south of Baghdad, are too unsafe for voting to go ahead there.
The survey in the al-Mada newspaper, one of Iraq's most respected dailies, was conducted last week in eight main districts of Baghdad, one of the cities where insurgents are expected to launch attacks.
Based on a sample of 300 people, it found 67 per cent of Baghdadis planned to vote. Twenty-five per cent said they would not take part and 9 per cent of people were undecided.
"These figures are positive and indicate that Iraqis are undeterred by the threats," a spokesman for Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said.
Some members of Iraq's Arab Sunni Muslim minority, which enjoyed privileges under Saddam Hussein, fear that violence in their areas will scare people away from the ballot boxes and skew results in favour of the long- oppressed Shia majority.
The poll found that voters' intentions were influenced by religion, reflecting a trend expected across Iraq as Shia Muslim leaders call on their followers to vote and Arab Sunni Muslims urge a boycott or postponement.
Enthusiasm for elections was highest in Shia areas of the capital, such as the poor Sadr City district, where 71 per cent of people said they planned to vote.
A Shia list blessed by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, is expected to win a majority in the 275-member parliament, which will draft a new constitution and choose a government.
In the mostly staunchly Sunni district of Athamiya only 24 per cent of people were certain they would vote.