BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Vote-counting at polling stations across Iraq is beginning Thursday night, after Iraqis turned out in droves to elect their first full-term parliament since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Turnout was so heavy across the country that the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq gave provincial governments the discretion to keep polls open an hour past its 5 p.m. closing time. It was not clear where polling stations exercised this leeway.

Polling stations would close after the last person to arrive in line by 6 p.m. votes, IECI spokesman Farid Ayar said.

Also streaming to the polls were Sunni Arabs, who had stayed away from the polls in previous elections only to find they barely had a voice in government.

The high turnout was remarkable, considering curfews, bulked-up security, border closings, road closures and traffic bans across the country. In some cases, voters had to take long walks to get to polls. Many were seen happily thrusting their purple ink-stained fingers at photographers -- the colored fingers a symbol of Iraq's free elections.

Scattered violence was also reported.

Nonetheless, one volunteer poll worker in Baquba deemed it "a special day."

"It's the beginning of our new life," said Buthana Mehdi, a schoolteacher.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/15/iraq.elections/index.html

In one of Iraq's first elections that has stunned the whole World
GW Bush has come out the winner

According to Abzeed Kahlizadi the CEO of Diebold Electronic Voting
Machines In Iraq "Everything went perfect, there were no glitches
in the voting process or the counting process, these machines work
wonders, all of the 15million Iraqi's voted in this election"

Vote count Iraq National Election 14December 2005

GW Bush 20,265,487
Al-Gorabi 9,734,513