The polls have closed, but a door of hope has opened for Iraq.

Millions of Iraqis across the country headed to voting stations on Sunday in Iraq's first elections since the former regime was downed in April 2003, defying insurgents who made good of threats to attack voters who chose to vote for a better future.

No car bombs were reported throughout the day thanks to intensified security measures taken by US-Iraqi forces, but hardcore insurgents wearing explosive-laden belts blew up themselves outside several voting stations with queues of voters.

Around 14 million Iraqis, about half of the population, registered to vote in the elections. Some eligible voters did not register either due to intimidation or because they were boycotting the polls. But the majority say nothing can stop them from participating in Sunday's elections.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) previously said preliminary figures indicated 72 percent of the 14 million registered voters turned out two hours before the polls closed. However, the organizing body later played down the turnout to about 60 percent.

Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar was among the first to vote Sunday shortly after the polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT).

Smiling as he walked out of the polling booth, the Sunni Arab leader said, "Thanks God. I hope everyone will go out and vote, God willing."

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi later cast his vote in the heavily-fortified Green Zone complex in Baghdad, home to the US and the interim Iraqi government.

Speaking to reporters outside the voting booth, a beaming Allawi said the very fact that the election went as scheduled was an achievement.

"This is an accomplishment the government and myself are very proud of," he said. "This is the start of a new era. For the first time, Iraqis are deciding on their own future and defying the terrorist forces."

The Iraqi interim government has pulled out all stops to ensure a smooth voting, deploying tens of thousands of security forces across the country and imposing traffic restrictions in major cities.

While insurgent groups' threats to wash cities with voters' blood if they dare venture out, hundreds of thousands of voters, with bring-them-on attitude, braved potential mortar or rocket attacks in order to have their voices heard in a process to reshape the country's future political life.

Capt. Aysar, a police officer guarding a Baghdad Mansour district polling station, told Xinhua that people were not scared away from the polls as a suicide bomber who blew himself up just a few hours ago in the area.

Najiba Mehdi, 73, who cast his ballot at a polling booth in Kadhimiya district in Baghdad, said "I am here to exercise my legal right. Electing Iraqi leaders can ensure my children's safety. I am old. I just want to do something for them."

Mehdi was not alone. Her voice was echoed by Alwan Albulush, a lawyer, who told Xinhua inside a Mansour booth, "I am very very excited today. I think every ballot is a bullet fired at terrorists. All Iraqis should come and vote. We need an elected government which should be strong enough to say no to the US forces."

The government's repeated calls for voters' participation and heavy guarding paid off as voters headed to the polling centers even in Sunni-dominated restive cities like Falluja, Ramadi and Samarra.

Abdul Rahman, a Falluja resident, said, "people expressed their hope by voting that the new government will reward them by rebuilding their destroyed houses. People are so desperate because only about 20 percent of the city population returned to their houses or the remains of their houses."

The US-Iraqi forces launched an all-out offensive on Falluja last November in an effort to uproot insurgents there. The weeks-long attack virtually reduced the Sunni stronghold to rubble and forced most of 250,000 residents to flee.

Some other regions witnessed soaring turnout. In the Kurdish regions in northern Iraq, where security is tighter, there was a steady flow of people to the polls, live television pictures showed.

In the southern city of Najaf, capital of Iraq's Shiite heartland and site of the sect's holiest shrine, people flocked to the polling stations with a tight security ring.

Sunday's elections began at 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) and closed at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT). Iraqi officials hope for a turnout of at least 50 percent to lend legitimacy to the elections, which are expected to usher in a new era for the oil-rich but violence-shattered country.

The elections were designed to choose a 275-seat National Assembly which will pick up a transitional government and oversee the writing of a permanent constitution put for a national referendum by Oct. 15.

In addition, some 280,000 Iraqi expatriates, about a quarter of the eligible, have registered to vote and the International Organization for Migration which is in charge of the out-of-country voting said nearly two-thirds of them had voted since overseas polling stations opened in 14 countries on Friday.

Source: Xinhua