Iraq's Kurds vote in droves.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Colin McMahon

KIRKUK, Iraq _ Somehow, amid all the celebrating, the dressing up and, literally, the dancing in the streets, Iraq's Kurds found time to vote in droves Sunday.

United in their aspiration for independence and their repudiation of the Saddam Hussein regime that brutally oppressed them, Kurd voters lined up across the north even before polls opened at 7 a.m. local time.

At a polling station in Sulaymaniyah, more than a third of all eligible voters had cast ballots by 9 a.m. Hours later in the disputed city of Kirkuk, the registrar at a precinct with Kurd, Turkmen, Arab and Christian voters reported a turnout of 85 percent, with still an hour left on the clock.

Among the Sulaymaniyah voters was a 79-year-old man who could barely walk and yet trudged a mile to cast his ballot. Family members had to half-drag, half-carry him the last 100 yards. The freedom to vote, he said, was worth the effort.

Farida Hassan …