Saddam gets perfect poll result

Tributes to the re-elected leader were held aloft by supporters

Story Tools

VIDEO Early returns indicate overwhelming support for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, CNN's Nic Robertson reports (October 15) PLAY VIDEO SPECIAL REPORT •  War Tracker •  On the Scene Map •  Commanders: U.S. | Iraq •  Weapons: 3D Models •  Coalition casualties | POW/MIA •  Special Report RELATED STORIES • 'Other Iraq' ignores Saddam poll  • Strikes focus on key air base

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq has declared Saddam Hussein the winner with 100 percent of the votes in a referendum granting him another seven-year term, bringing bursts of celebratory gunfire in Baghdad's streets.

The statistics-busting result were seen in Baghdad as a message of defiance to U.S. President George W. Bush and his declared desire to end Saddam's 23-year rule.

"Our leader President Saddam Hussein, may God preserve him and look after him, has won 100 percent of the votes of eligible voters," said Saddam's top deputy Izzat Ibrahim, reading official results at a news conference in Baghdad. Saddam was the only candidate in the referendum.

"If there is aggression, the Americans will face these people who said 'yes' to Saddam Hussein," Ibrahim, vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and Saddam's right-hand man, added.

Ibrahim, vice-chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, said all 11,445,638 Iraqis eligible to vote had done so and every single one of them answered "Yes" to another seven-year term for Saddam, 65, who was appointed president in 1979.

Iraqi officials said popular outrage at American threats to Saddam's regime made the turnout and percentage even higher than the last vote, in 1995, when Saddam received a 99.96 "yes" vote.

"This result is real, whether some like it or not," Ibrahim said.

Bursts of gunfire exploded in downtown Baghdad as he spoke, as Saddam supporters fired in the air and danced on street corners.

"If the U.S. administration makes a mistake and attacks Iraq, we will fight them," Ibrahim said. "If they come, we will fight them in every village, and every house. Every house will be a front, and every Iraqi will have a role in the war.

"All Iraqis are armed now, and by God's will we will triumph."

The United States dismissed the vote and said it lacked any credibility.

"It is not even worthy of our ridicule, said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

The vote was also rejected by the Iraqi opposition in exile and others outside Iraq.

And CNN's Brent Sadler reported that in the north of the country, there was no ballot and little or no enthusiasm for the outcome. ('Other Iraq' ignores poll)

Many in Tuesday's referendum cast multiple ballots representing votes of entire families, stuffing fistfuls of votes into boxes.

The government offered no explanation for how it tabulated paper ballots from remote regions across the country of 22 million people overnight.

Iraqi women take part in a government-organized political celebration.

The referendum was a simple 'yes' or 'no' vote on keeping Saddam in power another seven years.

In a sharply worded news conference broadcast live on Iraqi TV, Ibrahim dismissed a question terming the 100-percent affirmation for Saddam "absurd."

"Someone who does not know the Iraqi people, he will not believe this percentage, but it is real," Ibrahim said. "Whether it looks that way to someone or not. We don't have opposition in Iraq."

Parliament members were expected to go to Saddam sometime on Wednesday to administer the oath of office immediately. Saddam has not appeared in public since December 2000.

The government had already declared the day a national holiday, in advance of the results.

Iraq has never known democracy, having transferred from a monarchy under British sway to military-backed rule from 1958 onwards.

Iraq has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since invading Kuwait in 1990. U.N. resolutions require the country to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction, but it is widely believed to retain chemical and biological weapons, and the United States has accused it of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

The United States wants a new Security Council resolution that would give U.N. weapons inspectors wide powers to uncover any Iraq's arms and to enable military strikes on Iraq if it resists full inspections.

France has led a campaign in the Security Council to drop from the resolution the idea of an automatic trigger for a conflict.

Iran poll to go to run-off • U.N.: Truck bomb killed Hariri • EU 'crisis' after summit failure • U.S. House votes to keep U.N. dues

CNN/Money: Security alert issued for 40 million credit cards • Bin Laden deputy sends message • U.S. House votes to keep U.N. dues • Iran poll to go to run-off