Iraq imposes curfew and car ban for polling day

An unprecedented series of security measures will be in force in Iraq during next Sunday's election, it was announced by Baghdad authorities yesterday.

An unprecedented series of security measures will be in force in Iraq during next Sunday's election, it was announced by Baghdad authorities yesterday.

There will be an 8pm-6am curfew in many parts of the country, a three-day holiday, no travel between provinces and a ban on the use of most cars. Baghdad international airport will be closed for two days, and civilians will be forbidden from carrying weapons. Anyone caught breaking the rules will be detained, a statement said.

Even the locations of many polling stations are being kept secret until the last minute, to make it harder for bombers to plan their attacks. The plan for election day envisages an inner ring of Iraqi police at polling stations, an outer ring of Iraqi troops, and American rapid-reaction forces to be deployed as necessary. Such will be the circumstances in which the country holds its first multi-party election in nearly 50 years.

The registration deadline for Iraqis voting abroad has been extended by two days after it was discovered that only about one in eight of those eligible had signed up. By Friday, 131,635 of an estimated million eligible voters in 14 countries had registered to vote in elections that will pick a 275-member parliament which will in turn select a cabinet and oversee the drafting of a constitution.

Sunni Muslim rebels have vowed to disrupt the balloting, and Sunni clerics have urged postponement until security has improved. But leaders of the majority Shias, estimated at 60 per cent of Iraq's 26 million people, disagree, believing their numbers will bring them power long denied them by Sunni Arabs.

Underscoring the grave security challenge, the insurgent Ansar al-Sunnah Army announced on a website that it had killed 15 Iraqi National Guardsmen seized from a commercial bus in the Anbar provincial town of Hit. "After the investigation, they confessed to the crimes they have committed with the crusader forces," the group said. "God's verdict has been carried out by shooting them ... They should be a lesson to others." However, eight Chinese taken hostage have been released.

* Tony Blair is planning a trip to Washington in June, the second in six months, according to a Whitehall source. However, Downing Street said nothing was arranged.