For the first time since the complete withdrawal of the United States military in 2011,  citizens across Iraq have gone to the polls to vote in their country’s parliamentary elections amid a very real threat of violence and intimidation. Violent threats from the reinvigorated insurgency are taken seriously by officials and Iraqi citizens as the country has recently seen the highest level of violence since the height of the sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007.

There are few places in the world that have seen more suffering in the 21st century than the fault line between Sunni and Shiite Iraq that has been carved with immense violence. Since the US pullout, it was always known the elections were going to be something of a challenge even with the best intentions of the government. Recent reports are that more than 50 polling stations have been attacked throughout the country and dozens of people have been killed as a direct result of violence that has been related to the election. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in violence between Sunni insurgents and the Shiite led government that now threatens the capital after engulfing provinces in Iraq like Anbar province on the Syria border.

Despite the high level of violence, many Iraqi’s were determined to get to the polls whether they drove to the polls or made long walks through the desert to get to the polls. “Today is a big success and even better than the last elections, even though there is no foreign soldier on Iraqi soil”, Prime Minister Nori Al Maliki said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Even without the United States in Iraq, the country plays a role as the Iraqi army still buys equipment from the United States, mainly fighter jets and helicopters. Although the United States still plays a significant set of cards inside the country, Iran has been struggling with the United States to become the main superpower in the gulf region and has been using Iraq as a place to establish itself throughout the region.

With various political parties taken part in the election, it is certain that no party will win a majority. On paper the diversity of Iraq’s political scene is commendable. In a fair vote (still in question), Prime Minister Nori Al-Maliki has plenty of Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish competition. But facts on the ground remain the facts for the Iraqi people: large parts of the country are not in government hands but in Al-Qaeda’s instead. Although no party will win the majority, Maliki declared on Wednesday that a victory for a third term was ‘certain’.  George W. we would like your opinion (after the vote please).