Saddam Hussein's regime is pushing for a maximum number of votes in today's presidential elections in Iraq - as it is hopes to signal his popularity to the west as the country faces a possible war against US-led forces.
Saddam faces no challenger as he seeks another seven-year term - it is up to the voters to approve or disapprove him for another seven years. However, the government is looking for a greater percentage of "yes" votes - in the last referendum, held on October 15 1995, Saddam received 99.96% of the "yes" vote.
The ruling Baath party has staged neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood rallies and vote drives, built around the slogan "Yes, Yes, Yes Saddam". State television and radio has also aired a constant campaign pitch for Saddam.
Nearly 12 million people are expected to cast ballots at one of 1,905 polling stations spread across 72 districts. Voting booths are separate for men and women, in line with Islamic segregation of the sexes.
Most polling stations are schools, plastered with posters of the leader. To encourage voter turnout sorbet, biscuits and hot tea are served, and children put on shows of patriotic songs.
Iraq has sought to picture the vote as a national show of solidarity to counter US pressure for a war to drive Saddam from power. Yesterday, the US president, George Bush, called Iraq "part of the war on terror", as he decried the attacks in Yemen, Kuwait and the resort island of Bali.
At an election eve rally in Baghdad's people's stadium, the Iraqi vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, condemned the US over reported plans for a post-Saddam military occupation of Iraq - saying it showed the Bush government as a "crazy and evil administration".
In Iraq, where it's unheard of to publicly criticise Saddam, it's not hard to find average people speaking bitter words about the US and its allies along with flowery praise for the Iraqi president.
Sitting at the door of his house in Kerbala, 75 miles south of Baghdad, Ali Ahmed Abdul Munaim waited for the school across the road to open so he could vote "and get it over with".
"I am voting not for Saddam, because my vote for Saddam was determined long ago, but I am voting against America and Britain," Abdul Munaim told the Associated Press this morning.
A polling station in Mahmoudia, 25 miles south of Baghdad, was crowded already in the first hour of voting.
"We are voting for our country and our dignity. Saddam is one of us - he was not forced by international powers to run the country," Hikmat Sadoun said while waiting to vote.
"When he became president in 1979, we looked at him as the young challenging man and we still do," he said.
Polls opened at 8am and were due to close at 8pm, and the government organised tours for journalists to different parts of the country to witness the voting. More than half of the journalists went to Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.