A New Day Has Come

Hi it's me again ! :-)... Today is the day of the provincial elections in our Iraq. Today is not like any other day, today is a new dawn and a fresh new start for us and for our Iraq... Earlier today I went to the polling station (which lies in Eastern Baghdad) and voted for the bloc of Mr Nouri Al Maliki. The polling station is located in the building of my old high school. At the polling station I met many of my old high school teachers, neighbours, and close friends, which was actually amazing. Tight security measures were imposed on the ground, but people who were providing security were exclusively Iraqis, and they've down an absolutely briliant job. Everything went smoothly, the whole process was well-organised, people in charge of the polling station were co-operative and friendly, and the Iraqi security forces personnels were doing their best inorder to keep things safe and quiet. The votes of my family members divided between secular and moderately religious blocs. And also the votes of my relatives, neighbours, good friends, and college colleagues were for different political blocs, sometimes inconsistent with their religious or ethnic backgrounds i.e. I do have some good Muslim Sunni friends who voted for the bloc of our PM Mr Nouri Al Maliki, who's Muslim Shiite. In 2005 any discussion involving the topic of the elections used to generate a huge amount of stress and sectarian tensions. But now I've noticed that people are more willing to discuss the topic of the elections in a heated, yet civilised and friendly way, so ordinary Iraqi citizens (not Iraqi politicians) have to a great extent got over sectarian tensions that used to predominate the atmosphere down here in the past. Today we ordinary Iraqi citizens have ultimately voted for the sake of our Iraq, not for our religious and ethnic backgrounds. CONGRATULATIONS to our Iraq, and to everyone who's made this day possible. We do have the absolute right to be proud of ourselves and of what we've achieved, today we've just made history.