BAGHDAD, Iraq – Cars and trucks returned to Iraq’s roads Saturday as authorities eased security imposed for the parliamentary election.
With Thursday’s voting held peacefully, Iraqi officials also reopened border crossings, except on the frontier with Syria. They said the Syrian crossings would reopen in a few days, but did not say why there was a delay.
There were few violent incidents reported for a third day. In four shootings, attackers killed a former Iraqi air force officer, a member of a prominent Shiite party and two policemen, authorities said. The U.S. command also reported the death of a Marine from a nonhostile wound.
Although no official vote figures have been released, authorities estimate just under 70 percent of Iraq’s 15 million registered voters cast ballots Thursday.
The big turnout – particularly among the disaffected Sunni Arab minority that boycotted the election of a temporary legislature in January – have boosted hopes that increasing political participation may undermine the insurgency and allow U.S. troops to begin pulling out in 2006.
“It is a great thing that the election was violence-free, contrary to many elections in the world,” said Adnan al-Dulaimi, a former Islamic studies professor who heads the main Sunni Arab bloc.
His Iraqi Accordance Front is expected to significantly increase the Sunni Arab presence in the 275-member parliament, where Sunnis won only 17 seats Jan. 30.
A day after saying he might be able to form a ruling coalition with Sunnis, secular Shiites and Kurds, Al-Dulaimi said he also would consider working with the governing United Iraqi Alliance, a religious-based group whose supporters come from the country’s Shiite majority.
“For the sake of Iraq, there is nothing impossible. We have to forget the past and we extend our hands to everybody,” he said.
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