Early Parliamentary Vote Today...

Polls opened today for early voting in Iraq's upcoming Parliamentary election. The early session was set aside for those unable to make Sunday's election day. This would include Iraqi expats, military and police personnel, hospital patients and detainees.

The UN Assistance Mission to Iraq estimated some 700-950k people will participate today.  Iraqi voters dip their index fingers in ink indicating they've finished the voting process. In the first election in 2005, this became known as the Purple Revolution.

As a result, we did not treat detainees on Thursday. Instead, inmates lined up to vote inside the TIF. Those with sentences of 5 years or less were allowed to cast their ballots.

Vying for Iraq's 19 million registered voters are some 6,000 candidates from 90 different parties. All 18 Iraqi provinces will participate on Sunday's elections. Though violence from some of Iraq's factionalized groups is occurring, the word on the street is that most Iraqis will vote Sunday.

Come Friday, I will check our detainee patients: I want to see a lot of Husky Purple in clinic tomorrow!