BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Bomb blasts and rocket and  mortar fire killed 38 people as Iraqis voted on Sunday in an  election they hoped would distance their nascent democracy from  years of sectarian slaughter as US troops pack up to leave.

The explosions rumbled across Baghdad and other cities after  Sunni Islamist insurgents vowed to wreck voting for Iraq’s   second full-term parliament since the 2003 U.S. invasion, a vote  watched closely by global oil companies planning to invest  billions to develop the country’s dilapidated oilfields.

Turnout among the 19 million eligible voters was not clear.

It could take three days to get results in an election that  will prove vital to US President Barack Obama’s plan to halve  US troop levels by August and withdraw completely by end-2011.

“I have great respect for the millions of Iraqis who refused  to be deterred by acts of violence, and who exercised their  right to vote today,” Obama said in a statement. “Their  participation demonstrates that the Iraqi people have chosen to  shape their future through the political process.”

Authorities said dozens of mortar and rocket attacks rattled  Baghdad during the early hours of polling before ebbing later in  the day. In the deadliest incident, 25 people were killed when  an explosion blew up a three-storey Baghdad apartment block.

Rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble as a woman buried  under debris screamed to be saved.

“It is terrible that lives have been lost but it doesn’t  change the course of the Iraqis,” said Ad Melkert, the UN  special representative to Iraq. “There will be issues, but they  are serious elections and many Iraqis have participated with  great conviction.”

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission said only two  polling stations had to be closed briefly for security reasons.

The Islamic State of Iraq, an al Qaeda affiliate, had warned  Iraqis not to vote and vowed to attack those who defied them.

The 96,000 US troops still in Iraq stayed in the  background, underscoring the waning American role in Iraq, but  US helicopter gunships provided aerial support.

Choice between

Islamist and secular

Voters in the ethnically and religiously divided country  were given a choice between Shi’ite Islamist parties that have  dominated Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s fall and secular rivals.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi’ite, urged all parties  to accept the results and called the attacks a disgrace.

“They (militants) cannot see democracy and freedom,” he  said. “All their challenges have failed and the population will  win.”

One of Maliki’s opponents, ex-Prime Minister Iyad Allawi,  had already complained of irregularities in early voting and on  election night criticised the electoral commission (IHEC) for  “wide and severe confusion” at voting centres.

“I ask the next parliament to open a full investigation in  the issue of election and the roles played by some government  officials, also to include all the IHEC members,” he said.

Allawi’s secular alliance is tapping into exasperation with  years of conflict, poor public services and corruption, and  hopes to gain support from the once privileged Sunni minority  that views Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government with suspicion.

There were few signs of a repeat of the Sunni boycott of a  2005 election that left them on the fringes of Iraqi politics  and fuelled an insurgency that killed thousands. But some Sunnis  were sceptical that the election would improve their lot.

“They blamed us because we did not vote last time. I came  with my wife to vote although I am not enthusiastic, because I  know there will be no change,” said Mohammed Abode, 37, who cast  his vote at a centre in Ramadi, in Sunni Anbar province.
About 6,200 candidates from 86 factions are vying for 325  parliamentary seats. No bloc is expected to win a majority, and  it may take months to form a government, risking a vacuum that  armed groups such as Iraq’s al Qaeda offshoot might exploit.

Few elections in the Middle East have been as competitive as  this one. Its conduct could determine how democracy in Iraq  affects a region used to kings and presidents-for-life.