Roughly 14.2 million (CNN's figure) Iraqis within Iraq are eligible to vote - and an additional 1.2 million who live outside the country are also eligible.

All Iraqis 18 years or older are eligible, provided they can prove their citizenship. Iraq has no official census, so voters were registered through ration cards used for the UN oil-for-food program, which began in 1996. Iraqis whose ration-card information was correct were considered registered.

Iraq has a population of more than 25 million people, but 40 percent of them are under the age of 14 (in the United States, 20 percent of the population is 14 or younger).

Martial law was declared by the former CIA agent Allawi, who is the current head of the "interim" Iraqi government, for the "election period". No one knows when, or if, it will be rescinded after today.

The estimates of voter turnout so far are around 8 million, although, according to CNN:

"The Independent Election Commission of Iraq clarified an earlier estimate of a 72 percent turnout in Sunday's election, saying that the "figures are only very rough, word-of-mouth estimates gathered informally from the field."

CNN correspondents reported that turnout was sporadic across the nation after 30,000 polling booths opened at 7 a.m. on Sunday (11 p.m. ET Saturday) under the watchful eye of Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops."