Iraqi Elections Under Way

Provincial elections are under way in Iraq today and, so far, according to The New York Times, there is a "lighter turnout than expected." Fourteen thousand candidates are competing for 440 seats in 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces and there are, so far, no reports of injuries or violence in Iraq’s largest electoral exercise since violence peaked in 2006 and 2007. According to The Times, "Today's vote could be a curtain raiser for national polls within a year that would elect a successor to Mr. Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government."