Can the voters build on success?

摘要

"A great day," said the interim (and perhaps outgoing) prime minister, Iyad Allawi. "Absolutely delighted," was the verdict of a usually dour American diplomat in Baghdad. Many Iraqi voters evidently shared such feelings, dancing in the streets, tossing sweets into polling stations, and waving two fingers, one dyed with supposedly indelible ink to prevent multiple voting, in a victory salute. Many said that the vote was a defeat for terrorism and that their sons and fathers murdered by Saddam Hussein had now been avenged. "I'm a suicide voter!" proudly declared one of the first citizens to cast a ballot in a Sunni district of Baghdad.