The overwhelmingly Shia population of Basra, Iraq's second city, flocked to polling stations on Sunday in a celebratory mood, defying a series of mortar explosions as well as rumours that the city's water system had been poisoned.

Whole families turned out, with children accompanying adults to witness the first multi-party election in Iraq for more than half a century, a poll in which the Shia are expected to assert their numerical superiority after decades of being marginalised and politically dominated by the minority Sunni Arabs.