Thu Dec 15, 2005 - 6:04 AM ET

Kurdish regional president and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani drops his ballot at a polling station in the northern city of Arbil December 15, 2005. A steady stream of Iraqi voters walked to polling stations nationwide on Thursday to elect their first full-time parliament since Saddam Hussein's overthrow, ignoring sporadic violence such as a mortar attack in Baghdad. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari