Teams of cleaners on Monday got to work cleaning up the campaign posters, banners and pamphlets that filled the streets of Iraq's cities for the weekend's parliamentary elections, as reports put the turnout at between 60-68 per cent, dpa reported.
In some districts, workers also cleaned up rubble and debris from a wave of bomb and rocket attacks that left dozens of voters dead and more than a hundred injured in the polls, seen as a key test of Iraq's stability ahead of the withdrawal of US forces.
Elections officials said they would announce the voter-turnout rate later Monday. In estimates published in Baghdad's semi-official al-Sabbah daily, elections officials said they expected the figure would be between 60-68 per cent.
The officials further warned against putting too much stock in the exit polls reported on television stations associated with Iraq's major political parties.
"So far there are no real numbers," a spokesman for the electoral commission stressed.
Television stations associated with Iraq's leading parties had projected a strong showing for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition and former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List.
Some 18.9 million Iraqis were eligible to vote in Sunday's polls, Iraq's second since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.