Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) — Violent attacks on election day didn’t stop large numbers of Iraqis from successfully casting their votes in key parliamentary elections yesterday. “Yes, we were scared after we heard these bombings, but we just had to come,” said a woman who identified herself only as Ghisoun. Her two children were at her side.

“It’s an opportunity we can’t miss — not for us, but for our children,” she said.

Polls in Iraq to elect a 325-member parliament closed last evening, capping an electoral process in which militants intent on disrupting the vote carried out dozens of attacks that killed 38 people.

Despite the risks, voter turnout could reach 55 percent, a senior U.S. official told CNN.

Haitian government would likely produce more coherence, but he acknowledged the difficulties of restoring a country beset by long-term structural weaknesses.

“Doing this thing in a joint or coherent manner, the ordinary Haitian will see a uniformly managed reconstruction process and therefore get more bang for your buck,” he said.
Chile mourns quake dead