Shiites see election as chance to redress past wrongs.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Liz Sly

NAJAF, Iraq _ At 7 a.m. sharp Sunday, as the gates to the Fadileh Primary School opened for voting, Najiha Hassan Raadi trundled down the road in a wobbly wheelchair to be among the first to cast a ballot in Iraq's historic election Sunday.

"This is the best day of my life," she said, and then started to cry.

Six of her brothers were executed by the Baath Party regime, and she spent two years in prison, an experience that left her ailing and unable to walk, said Raadi, 62. Overcome with emotion, she wheeled off to vote, with the help of a grandson.

So the voting went Sunday in Najaf, the holiest of holy Shiite cities, where elated citizens swarmed to cast their ballots, in peace and in joy, in an election Iraq's Shiite majority sees as a chance to redress the wrongs of their bitter past by staking their claim to the future of the democratic process. Though they represent 60 percent of the Iraqi population, Shiites …