Iraq security forces vote in first poll since IS war

BAGHDAD: Around one million soldiers, police and other security personnel voted across Iraq on Thursday in the first national elections since the country declared victory over the Islamic State group.

Servicemen in uniform queued up to cast their ballots two days before the rest of the country heads to the polls for a parliamentary election Saturday, just five months after the battle against the jihadists drew to a close. Polling stations closed at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT).

Iraqis are hoping that the vote can lock in a fragile peace, 15 blood-soaked years after the US-led ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein.

But they face the mammoth task of reconstruction, while IS continues to pose a major security threat. In the war-ravaged former IS stronghold of Mosul, retaken in July after months of street-to-street combat, policeman Renan Khaled said he wanted reconstruction to be a main priority. “I am voting for the future of my family, so that good people occupy the right positions,” said Khaled, 25, wearing a blue police uniform.

At a school in central Baghdad that had been turned into a polling station, police and presidential guard members waited to make their choice.

Security was tight after IS threats, and voters were frisked several times as they entered to cast their ballots.