Despite attacks on the offices of a Sunni party which supports the new Iraqi constitution:

Sunni Arabs - who largely boycotted January’s vote - were reported to have come out in force, many of them saying they wanted the charter to fail.

Maybe they are voting “no,” but they are voting. While I do not believe that Sunnis can muster enough votes to kill the new constitution, they are engaging in the democratic process. This lesson is not something that should be underestimated.

Just Thursday, Iraq’s largest Sunni party agreed to support the country’s new constitution:

The deal hints at further Sunni participation in politics as many Sunni leaders believe they can win a significant minority in the next parliament election in December. After boycotting elections in January, they have only a few seats in the current 275-seat parliament that drafted the constitution.

Hopefully more and more Sunnis will turn to the parliamentary process. Is it true that they “fear the break-up of the country?” More likely many Sunnis fear the loss of their former hegemony — and loss of the oil reserves underneath the feet of their former captives, the Shiites in the south and the Kurds in the north.

Good news so far in today’s vote:

Conditions in many areas were described as calm, in contrast to the violence of January’s election when insurgents carried out dozens of lethal attacks.