HEADLINE: Public Opinion Poll Indicates Iraqis Favor Kerry over Bush in U.S. Presidential Race


INTRO: A new public opinion poll shows more Iraqis favor Democratic challenger John Kerry than President Bush, who launched the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. But as VOA's Greg Lamotte reports from Baghdad, more than half of the two-thousand peopled polled throughout Iraq don't care who wins the U.S. presidency in next week's election.


TEXT: The new survey of Iraqi public opinion was conducted last week by Iraq's Center for Research and Strategic Studies in Baghdad. The group, which has been operating in Iraq for about a year, says its latest survey indicates that among Iraqis with a preference, Mr. Kerry leads President Bush by six-and-a-half percentage points. The poll has a margin of error of four percent.

But the director of the center, former Iraqi exile Sadoun al-Dulame, says 58-percent of the respondents said they don't care who wins the U.S. presidential election.


(From the VOA website)

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