Iraqi polls open amid violence

Soon after Iraq's polls opened at 7am, sporadic attacks against the public began.

Mortars struck Baghdad's militarised green zone as the polls opened at 3pm AEDT, with over 46,000 voting stations across Iraq openend for the country's second post-invasion election.

Soon after, rmortar fire killed three people in northeastern Baghdad, while a police official said two mortar shells fell in the Ur neighbourhood, also wounding five people.

At around 5pm AEDT, 12 more were killed in another Baghdad attack.

Polling stations overseas opened prior to Saturday for ex-pat voters, but representatives from Iraq's 74 political parties were Sunday fighting it out on Iraqi soil for the 325 seats.

Amid tight security, Sunni Arabs were expected to turn out in force at voting centres, in stark contrast to 2005 when they boycotted nationwide polls in protest at the rise to power of the nation's long-oppressed Shiite majority.

That boycott deepened the sectarian divide and heightened unrest which killed tens of thousands of Iraqis in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion and which has only eased in the past two years.

But despite tensions and the threat of violence, a sens of optimism radiates from many everyday Iraqis.

"We left our days of opression and we are embracing our democracy", Abu Haider told Al Jazeera TV.

"We can talk and express our opinions in this electoral process. We are all brothers and we can live together in peace."

One woman, Um Ali, told the network she wouldn't be deterred by threats.

"I will vote. Those who are afraid should lock themselves inside their refrigerators."

Last ditch attacks to derail process

Sectarian violence has already marred the vote, as extremists attempt to derail the process up until the final minute.

A car bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims killed three people in Iraq's holiest city on Saturday on the eve of the country's parliamentary election which, Al-Qaeda affiliates have threatened to wreck.

The blast near a Shiite shrine in Najaf, which officials said killed two visiting Iranians and an Iraqi, as well as wounding at least 54 people, came despite a massive nationwide security operation in the run-up to Sunday's vote.

It gutted four pilgrim buses, mangled cars and left the area spattered with blood, smashed glass and torn clothes, and blew out the windows of nearby hotels that host the thousands of Iranians who flock to Najaf every month.

"We had gathered all the pilgrims in the car park, and they were getting into the buses when the explosion took place, and killed and injured many visitors," said Hussein Banahi, an Iranian tour guide.

US desperate for electoral process to take root

But others will be hoping the huge security operation helps the day run smoothly - at least by the standards that have come to be expected in Iraq since the Western invasion took place.

200,000 police and soliders are on call in Baghdad alone. And while the Americans are touting Iraq-control, US troops will be on standby.

The United States hopes the election will bolster Iraq's fledgling democracy, make it a beacon in a region where free and fair elections are the exception, and pave the way to a smooth pullout of American troops.

Wide range of candidates

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Shiite head of the State of Law Alliance, is bidding to become the first Iraqi voted back into office at the will of the people who for decades had no choice but Saddam's Baath Party.

Maliki, 59, who heads a religious coalition with a secular outlook that includes several Sunni tribal sheikhs, on Wednesday said he was "certain" of poll victory.

But he is facing stiff competition.

His rivals include Iyad Allawi, a Shiite former prime minister who heads the Iraqiya list, a rival secular coalition that has strong support in Sunni areas.

Also seeking the top job are Ahmed Chalabi, a former deputy premier once favoured but now loathed by Washington; Adel Abdel Mahdi, the country's Shiite vice president; and Baqer Jaber Solagh, the finance minister.

Chalabi, Mahdi and Solagh all represent the Iraq National Alliance, the main Shiite religious list.

Under the Iraqi electoral system no one party will emerge with the 163 seats needed to form a government on their own and the ensuing horse-trading to form a governing coalition could take months.

The vote is seen as a pivotal test of democracy less than six months before US combat troops quit the country ahead of a complete withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2011.

So far, 4,380 American soldiers have died since the invasion, according to an AFP tally based on the independent website icasualties.org.

Iraq Body Count, a Britain-based group, estimates that between 95,000 and 104,000 civilians have been killed in the same period.