00:0060 miles south of Baghdad, they were dancing in the streets outside Iraq's holiest Shiite shrine.
00:07In Basra, near the Kuwaiti border, women were allulating.
00:12And in Baghdad, soldiers were celebrating.
00:15Iraq appeared in a festive mood as more than 7 million Iraqi citizens went to the polls.
00:21Their task, to decide whether to give President Saddam Hussein another 7 years of power.
00:27Early in the morning, people form long queues across the country to register their vote.
00:32There was only one candidate, Saddam.
00:34The referendum's single question, did they approve of him remaining as President?
00:39Not surprisingly, the West, especially the US, has branded the exercise a sham.
00:44Just as predictably, senior Iraqi officials disagreed.
00:48Although the President himself laid low, his daughter voted, as did his wife and other family members.
00:54Meanwhile, counting continued throughout Iraq at over 1,600 polling booths.
01:00The apparently genuine show of popular support seems likely to be translated into the expected landslide victory for the incumbent President.
01:08The President
01:10The President
01:12The President
