BAGHDAD — BAGHDAD - A young Sunni man strolling along the Tigris River hesitated when asked whom he had voted for in provincial elections yesterday. Then he gave an answer that would have seemed unthinkable during the depths of Iraq's bloody civil war: "Our prime minister" - the Shiite head of the government, Nouri al-Maliki.
Along Haifa Street, where high-rises once served as shooting galleries for Sunni gunmen battling U.S. troops, another Sunni voter was coy about his choice but hinted that he, too, is pleased with the job al-Maliki has done. "Definitely I'm happy," the elderly man said when asked his opinion of the current state of affairs in Iraq.
Four years ago, during Iraq's last provincial elections, most Sunnis boycotted the vote, leaving the country's powerful provincial councils dominated by the ascendant Shiites and Kurds. This time the Sunnis took part, but that won't necessarily hurt al-Maliki as he seeks to solidify his Islamic party's hold on power.
Sectarianism certainly remains an issue here, but in some voters' minds, it's trumped by the improved security that al-Maliki, rightly or wrongly, is credited with bringing to once-lawless parts of Iraq.
Underscoring the security gains were the latest death tolls from war-related violence, released Friday: 189 civilians and Iraqi security forces were killed in January, the lowest total since April 2003, when the initial ground war of the U.S.-led invasion ended.
"When there are insurgents on the Sunni side, he hits them. When there are insurgents on the Shiite side, he hits them," the riverside stroller, Wissam Hussam, said of al-Maliki, whom he said he initially distrusted on sectarian grounds but has grown to admire.
Such views bode well for al-Maliki, who faces national elections later this year and would like to use a strong showing in this vote to hinder his rivals, the Kurds in the north, rival Shiites in the south, secularists and Sunni parties.
Provisional results from the vote are expected in several days, and final results verified by international observers won't be known for about a month. Late yesterday, the plastic tubs stuffed with the poster-sized ballots used for voting were being emptied by election workers for transport to a central counting center inside Baghdad's Green Zone.
