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Iraqis voted on Saturday for local representatives, on an almost violence-free election day aimed at creating provincial councils that more closely represent Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and tribal balance. By nightfall, there were no confirmed deaths, and children played soccer on closed-off streets in a generally joyous atmosphere. Security was extraordinary. Driving was banned in most of the country to prevent suicide bombers from attacking any of the more than 6,000 polling places and security checkpoints, often spaced just yards apart. The tight security, coupled with confusion over where voters should cast their ballots, appeared to have reduced turnout in many districts across the country. Senior members of several political parties were complaining publicly even before the polls closed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- Inspired by the democratic uprisings around the Arab world to push for change, young lawmakers in Parliament are running up against an ossified political elite still dominated by the exiles who followed American tanks into Iraq to establish a fragile, violence-scarred democracy. On the streets, the voices of young demonstrators and journalists have been muted by the batons and bullets of elite security units that answer only to a prime minister who officials say personally sends orders by text message. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- A few months ago, building on genuine if not universal popularity, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki appeared poised to win a second term as Iraq's prime minister. Now, as Iraqis prepare to vote in parliamentary elections on March 7, his path to another four years in office has become increasingly uncertain, his campaign erratic and, to some, deeply troubling. Far from consolidating power in the authoritarian manner that has plagued Iraq's history, Mr. Maliki risks losing it through the ballot box. In a region where the traditional exit from power has been ''the coup or the coffin,'' as one Western diplomat here put it recently, the election has become a crucial test of Iraq's post-invasion democracy, and of Mr. Maliki's own fate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In two crucial but very different parts of Iraq -- here in strategic Basra in the south and still violent Mosul in the north -- people voted in provincial elections for similar aims: security and a centralized state strong enough to fend off those who seek to divide it. The results are preliminary, but in Basra voters overwhelmingly chose the slate backed by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki because he is widely credited for restoring security to a city that was in the grip of Iranian-backed militias until April. Residents also believe that only he may be strong enough to curtail the influence of neighboring Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After six years as America's staunchest ally in the Iraq war, Britain handed over command of Basra Province to the American military on Tuesday, marking the first step in the withdrawal of most of Britain's 4,100 remaining troops. On the same day as the transfer in Iraq's south, a suicide truck bomber killed at least 7 people and wounded 38 in the fractious northern city of Mosul, underscoring the uneven nature of the security gains in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- Insurgents unleashed a wave of coordinated attacks across Iraq on Wednesday in a demonstration of their ability to strike at will, offering their counterpoint to American aspirations of bringing the war in Iraq ''to a responsible end.'' In attacks in 13 towns and cities, from southernmost Basra to restive Mosul in the north, insurgents deployed their full arsenal: hit-and-run shootings, roadside mines and more than a dozen car bombs. The toll was in the dozens, but the symbolism underscored a theme of America's experience here: its deadlines, including the Aug. 31 date to end combat operations, have rarely reflected the tumultuous reality on the ground and have often been accompanied by a wave of insurgent attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iraq's provincial elections in January promised something still rare here: hope for the democratic political process. ''The best election in the Middle East,'' a party leader here in Babil Province declared. What has happened since then is something far more familiar to Iraqis: threats, intrigue, back-room deal-making, protests, political paralysis and, increasingly, popular discontent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric urged people on Monday to vote in the upcoming provincial elections despite dissatisfaction with previous balloting held since the American-led 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. The exhortation by the cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was significant because he had exerted some influence on past elections. His approval may increase turnout in the Jan. 31 vote, in which 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces will choose councils that function like state legislatures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was a cool winter morning in Baghdad on Monday, just a few miles from the Shiite mosque where a suicide bomber killed or wounded 112 people the day before. But Abdul Kareem, 50, a real estate developer and independent Shiite candidate, was on the street hustling for votes anyway, passing out campaign cards and gluing his posters to walls. ''If you think I'm a good man, campaign for me,'' Mr. Kareem told an elderly man, handing him a stack of laminated cards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]