Voting began Monday in hospitals, military camps and even prisons across Iraq, launching the process to choose a new parliament that the United States hopes can help quell the insurgency so U.S. forces can begin heading home, The Associated Press reported. Iraq's government announced it will close its borders, extend the nighttime curfew and restrict domestic travel starting Tuesday - two days before the main election day - to prevent insurgents from disrupting the vote. "We are very prepared for the elections, and we are highly determined," Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said. "We hope that everyone participates and that it will be a safe day. ... We are at a historic juncture." Voters will be choosing their first fully constitutional parliament since the 2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein. The 275-member assembly, which will serve for four years, will then choose a new government that U.S. officials hope can win the confidence of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority - the foundation of the insurgency. In a statement Sunday, Iraq's election commission said it was investigating a fivefold increase in the number of new voters in Kirkuk "that is difficult to explain." Kurds want to incorporate the oil-rich northern city into their self-ruled region, an idea strongly rejected by the two other ethnic groups in the city, the Arabs and the Turkomen. Although most of the 15 million eligible voters will cast ballots Thursday, soldiers, police, hospital patients and prisoners not yet convicted of crimes can vote Monday. Officials said Saddam - who is jailed and facing trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites in 1982 - has the right to vote but it was not known whether he would. Suspected insurgents held in U.S. or Iraqi detention but who have not been convicted of an offense would also be eligible, Iraqi officials said. On Tuesday, the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi voters living outside the country can begin casting their ballots over a two-day period at polling centers in 15 countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.
