Amman/Washington: Iraqis abroad cast the first ballots in their country's election on Tuesday, two days before their compatriots vote for postwar Iraq's first full-term parliament.
From Australia through the Middle East to the United States, 557 polling stations opened in 15 countries where more than one million Iraqis were eligible to vote abroad.
Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish concerns were reflected among many of the Iraqis living in neighbouring countries, Europe and the United States.
Voters came from all stages of their country's stormy past - those who fled Saddam Hussain's regime, others who left amid the 2003 US-led invasion or took refuge abroad from the relentless bloodshed that followed.
Strong voter turnout was seen in more than 500 polling stations around the world where Iraqis voted, including in Mideast nations Syria, Jordan and Iran, where reporters witnessed increased turnout activity compared to Iraq's landmark January elections.
Official turnout figures were not immediately available.
In the United States, there were eight polling places for an estimated 240,000 Iraqi-Americans eligible to vote, including three in California, which has the largest concentration of expatriate Iraqis.
"It is huge, especially for my parents because they never voted in their lives and they spent the majority of their lives in Iraq," said 28-year-old accountant Ahmad Hakeem of Irvine, California, who came vote with his mother and father.
California polling officials said voters came from as far away as Texas, Arizona and Washington state.
"The distance doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is that we vote," said Abdul Almansori, a 42-year-old truck driver from Dallas who traveled to southern California with his wife and three children.
Voting is limited to Iraqi citizens and people whose fathers are citizens.
"It's a turning point in Iraqi history," said Dahoud Abdul Rahman, who voted in the Washington suburb of McLean, Virginia. "I believe that yes, there will be some difficulties ... in creating a new government, but step-by-step Iraqis will go forward."
Electoral officials said voters turned out in Australia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and the UAE with no logistical or security problems reported.
"Everything is going smoothly," said Hamdieh Husseini, an official of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq.
Iraqis in Australia, where about 11,000 eligible voters were expected to take part, were the first expatriates to vote.
In the Syrian capital Damascus there was only a trickle of voters at one of the country's 11 polling centres but organisers were enthusiastic.
Security was tight around polling venues in Jordan where police set up roadblocks and guards used metal detectors to check all those entering the vote centers.
Turnout was moderate among Iraqi exiles in Shiite Iran where Saddam Hussein's fall has warmed ties between the former enemies who fought an eight-year war between 1980-1988.
"I hope violence ends and democracy flourishes in my country," said Nahid Dandebar, 42, at a polling station in central Tehran.
Organisers said about 81,000 Iraqis were eligible to vote in Iran.
