Security tight as Iraqis start voting on the landmark elections

Iraq's first election since 2005 will pick local councils in 14 of its 18 provinces and show whether Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining peace as U.S. troops begin to pull back, almost six years after the invasion to unseat Saddam Hussein.

Three provinces in the north, where Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens live, are to vote separately and the election in oil-rich, disputed Kirkuk has been put off because no one could agree on election rules.

Security for the country's first ballot since 2005 was extremely tight with Iraqi police and military deployed in strength as part of ramped-up measures aimed at preventing militant attacks.

About 15 million Iraqis are eligible to cast ballots and polling closes at 5 pm (1400 GMT), with results expected to start coming in on Tuesday.

In the Sunni Arab city of Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam, four flash bombs exploded near several polling centers, but police said there were no casualties, AFP reported. Reuters said three mortar shells landed close to voting centers.

TURNOUT CLOSELY WATCHED

Turnout is being closely watched, particularly among minority Sunni Arabs who massively boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2005.

The last election took place amid an al Qaeda-inspired Sunni insurgency and was followed by a wave of sectarian slaughter between Iraq's once dominant Sunni Arabs and its majority Shi'ite Muslims.

A relatively peaceful and credible election will show Iraq has moved on from solving disputes with bullets, and will set the stage for a parliamentary vote late in the year, in which Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will seek to renew his mandate.

"I call on all my Iraqi brothers and sisters to vote," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after casting his ballot in the highly-fortified Green zone in Baghdad, saying he expected a "large participation."

Maliki is challenging dominant Shi'ite rivals in the south, tribal sheikhs who fought al Qaeda are taking on Sunni religious parties in the west, and Arabs in the north who boycotted the last vote are looking to win a share of power from Kurds there.

Although security has much improved in recent months, Al-Qaeda and other insurgents continue to mount attacks on civilians and security forces, especially in the mainly Sunni Arab areas of Diyala province and the northern city of Mosul.

US KEEPS EYE ON ELECTIONS

Saturday's election is seen as a key test of Iraq's steadily improving security and political system as US President Barack Obama looks to redeploy American troops to Afghanistan, with a target withdrawal date of end-2011.

"Obviously the president will watch the results, and believes that the provincial elections this weekend mark another significant milestone in Iraqs democratic development," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.

Authorities have sealed Iraqs borders, shut down airports and imposed transport bans and night-time curfews as part of a massive security lockdown for the election.

The United Nations and Iraq's Independent High Election Commission is organising the elections, with 800 international observers, including US nationals, overseeing the ballot.

More than 14,400 candidates are standing for 440 seats in councils, which appoint the provincial governor and oversee finance and reconstruction, with a combined budget of 2.5 billion dollars.

"Our hopes are that basically the Iraqis have a free, fair, transparent election, free of violence," State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood said.