Iraq's provincial elections went off without major reports of violence Saturday, as tight security measures allowed millions of voters to cast their ballots.
Polls opened at dawn amid a heavy security clampdown that banned traffic in several cities and closed border crossings and airports.
Voting centres closed at 6 p.m. local time, an hour later than expected.
The elections are considered a test of Iraq's stability as U.S. officials consider massive troop withdrawals from the country.
Despite the security measures, officials reported a shooting in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. According to Ghufran al-Saidi, a local Shiite official, a military officer opened fire, injuring two people, after a group of voters began chanting slogans at a polling station.
But in a conflicting report, Iraqi military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said a shooting left one dead and one injured after voters attempted to carry mobile phones through security cordons.
In Tikrit, about 130 kilometres north of Baghdad, three mortar shells exploded near a polling station, a local police official said. There were no injuries reported in that incident.
A bomb was also found near a Tikrit voting centre but was defused, police said.
While polling stations were fairly peaceful, hundreds of Iraqi Kurds converged on an election office in the northern city of Khanaqin, complaining that they had been left off voting lists.
The incidents occurred despite a massive military and police presence across the country. In the Baghdad neighbourhood of Karradah, Iraqi military and police personnel manned checkpoints that were as little as 200 metres apart. Stores were shuttered and streets were closed to traffic.
In Fallujah, which at one time was the centre of a Sunni insurgency, local police helped voters get to polling stations.
While U.S. military officials helped prepare the security measures in advance of Saturday's elections, American soldiers stayed in the background. They engaged in foot patrols across the country, but steered clear of polling stations.
Voting shows 'trust in the government'
More than 14,000 candidates are running for 440 seats in all provincial councils except the Kurdish area in the north and the province that encompasses Kirkuk, where the various ethnic groups cannot come to a power-sharing agreement.
Iraqi officials said vote counting would begin on Sunday, but preliminary results are not expected until Tuesday.
After casting his ballot in the U.S. military's walled-in Green Zone in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged Iraqis to vote to show the progress the country has made since the U.S.-led military invasion in 2003.
"This gives a picture of trust in the government, the elections and the people's right to take part in this democratic process," al-Maliki said.
An election devoid of violence or charges of voting irregularities would strengthen the position of Iraqi authorities, who are increasingly taking over security duties in the country.
But problems at polling stations or serious violence could undermine supporters of U.S. troop withdrawals, which could occur next year.
The provincial elections are also considered a precursor to national elections later this year, when al-Maliki may face a serious challenge from Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
With files from The Associated Press
