Vote counting begins in Iraq

Iraq's parliamentary elections came to an end Sunday. But the process was not without incident as close to 40 people were killed in bomb and rocket attacks that aimed at disrupting the vote.

Electoral workers start the process of sorting and counting the ballot papers for the parliamentary elections at a polling station in Karbala, Iraq, Sunday, March 7, 2010. Polls have closed in Iraq's parliamentary elections after a spate of attacks that marred the vote and left 31 people dead, despite tight security.(AP Photo/Ahmed al-Hussainey)

Polls closed at 5pm Sunday. It will take three days to get results. About 19 million people were eligible to take part in the historic elections.

Insurgents who vowed to disrupt the elections

launched a spate of attacks as voting went on across the country.

Blasts rumbled across Baghdad and other cities as scores of mortar rounds, rockets and roadside bombs exploded near polling stations. 38 people were killed in the attacks.

Former PM Ayad Allawi said, "So many bombs have fallen on the heads of innocent people and the blood of Iraqis has been shed on streets. Problems have also hampered elections abroad in places like Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Syria."

But the violent attacks haven't stopped voters from casting ballots.

Iraqi Military spokesman Major General Qassim Ata said, "Insurgents had tried since the early morning to deter citizens' from casting their ballots. What had happened was the complete opposite, with millions heading to polling stations, and the number of voters increased."

The elections were Iraq's second attempt for a full term of parliament since the US invasion of the country seven years ago.

Many view the vote as a test of Iraq's fledgling democracy. Iraqis will have to decide whether to adhere to politics along the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish lines or move away from the ethnic and sectarian tensions.

Iraqis hope the vote will help them achieve national reconciliation, once the United States withdraws its forces, which Washington has vowed to do.