Voting begins at Iraq's prisons, hospitals (purple finger pic with story)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051212/ts_nm/iraq_election_vote_dc;_ylt=AjNPj6UW30a0C_HAYE8oobis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-
Voting begins at Iraq's prisons, hospitals

2 hours, 42 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Special voting began in
Iraq's hospitals and prisons on Monday, with security forces, detainees and the ill kicking off the country's first elections for a full-term parliament since the fall of
Saddam Hussein.

Patients in hospitals in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk put their votes into large plastic ballot boxes by their bedsides after dipping their fingers in purple ink, a measure designed to prevent multiple voting.

"They are all looking forward to this voting process since this will be good for the Iraqi people," said Youssef Ibrahim, an electoral commission worker at a Baghdad hospital.

A throng of people, including detainees, swarmed around a polling booth in a police headquarters building in Kirkuk. A U.S. military Humvee vehicle stood guard outside the building.

Most of Iraq will go to the polls on Thursday to elect a government that will rule for the next four years.

A web of security measures including night-time curfews, travel restrictions and sealed borders have been put in place to thwart insurgent attacks that have marred the run-up to the elections.......