Unlike balloting in 2005, Iraqis were responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing security for thousands of polling sites around the country.

Unlike 2005, U.S. military forces were well in the background, support-only forces in case of terrorist attacks and only if called upon for help by their Iraqi counterparts.

And there they stayed. The first post-surge political contests in Iraq took place last Saturday with little violence.

About 51 percent of eligible voters reportedly cast ballots in 14 of 18 provinces. More than 14,000 candidates were in the running nationwide either as independents, as candidates on individual party lists or as part of coalition blocs.

The Iraqi Security Forces "have developed a good plan," U.S. Army 1st Lt. Andy Garwitz said before the balloting. "They've done all the work. … To see how much they've done on their own is a good sign of how far things have come."

Garwitz is a platoon leader with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, which operates in the Tahrir district of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. The company's duties in the run-up to the voting, as with other U.S. units in the country, were to check and assess ISF security plans and offer assistance in materiel and advice if needed and requested. On Election Day, they were to be far from election sites and provide help only in case of violence and only if requested to do so.

That secondary/support role for the Americans was totally in keeping with the recently implemented Status of Forces Agreement, also called the Strategic Framework, that governs America's military presence in the country. As of Jan. 1, Iraqi forces are in the lead in all security operations.

In Diyala province, a restive mixed-sect region northeast of Baghdad, the Iraqi 5th Division and Ministry of Interior Iraqi Police secured the more than 300 voting centers, which were mainly schools. Sites were checked and rechecked days in advance, IPs took up temporary residence at the sites days in advance, multiple security cordons and checkpoints were chosen and established. Fuel supplies for patrol vehicles -- always a problem for ISF -- were obtained and joint communications centers established.

"The (Iraqi army) battalion and company commanders were ahead of the Brigade in working up plans," said Maj. Jonathan Lauer, a Military Transition Team leader with the 19th Brigade of 5th IA Division. "They know their areas really well."

Military transition teams work with Iraqi forces on the battalion level and higher, teaching and mentoring their counterparts on everything from weapons skills to recordkeeping to combat medical treatment to operational planning.

Lauer's team has worked with the 19th Brigade and its companies and battalions since March.

Last Saturday each voting center had between 12 and 17 Iraqi police on site, with concrete blast protection barriers placed in front of entrances. At 30 meters -- the distance depended on terrain -- were IA checkpoints on approaches to the sites. All people entering were searched multiple times; women were searched by female personnel at the sites for hidden bombs; no one without an identity card and a food ration card, which shows place of residence, was allowed into a voting site.

At a Joint Communications Center in Khalis, about 15 kilometers from Baquba, Iraqi army soldiers and IP officers manned walkie-talkies and conversed on cell phones with units in the field for security situation updates. The sole U.S. military phone was unused -- there were only a couple of minor, non-terror-related incidents -- and the Americans were not needed for backup. The Iraqis handled it themselves, quickly and efficiently.

The communications center, with aerial maps on the wall and whiteboard unit deployment information, was replicated elsewhere in the Baquba area and the province.

"No one is on leave," said Lt. Col. Kareem Jadoi Hussein, deputy commander of the 19th Brigade. "That will come later in the week, but we'll still be ready for anything."

The division's vigilance was and is not overzealousness. Diyala is one of Iraq's most restive regions. Al-Qaida terrorists, although greatly disrupted, still hide or operate in the province's eastern area that borders Iran; remnants of Shiite extremist groups are also believed to be in the province.

As many as 60 percent of its 1.8 million people are Sunni Muslims, but minority Shiites dominate the current provincial government as a result of Sunnis boycotting 2005 balloting in protest of the U.S. occupation or as a result of al-Qaida intimidation.

The boycott was off this time around, and election results, to be formally announced later this month, are expected to result in a political turnaround. How Shiites react to the change is the question. A second question is whether extremist groups will be able to take advantage and exploit resentments.

"Those are problems that come after the results," Kareem said. "There will be anger and shouting. We're prepared for trouble, but there will be no security problems, Inshallah (God willing).

"The Iraqi people are beginning to get back to their right minds."

Inshallah. Baquba is just 35 miles from Baghdad. An explosion of sectarian violence here could easily spread beyond provincial borders.

An Iraqi government-funded survey in January found more than 40 percent of 4,750 people polled in the 14 or 18 provinces participating in the vote said they would vote for candidates not affiliated with religion-based parties or coalition blocs. Iraqis on the street often say they are done with sectarianism and are more concerned with electing people who will work to restore and expand basic services and fight rampant corruption.

"We came here to vote for someone to lead us in a good way, someone honorable," Yayah Genei, a Sunni, said outside a voting station in the village of Hebheb. "We chose the wrong people last time and got nothing.

"We know who deserves to be elected. We won't look whether they are religious or not."

A Shiite soldier said: "People are going to vote for good guys, people who will work for everybody and not steal money."

Results of the contests in Diyala and elsewhere in Iraq -- a total of 440 seats were up for grabs -- will soon be known. And then the real test of Iraq's fledgling democracy begins.

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