BAGHDAD: A group that organised 10,000 independent observers for Sunday's Iraqi election said there had been "very little fraud" seen during the historic vote. As polling stations started to close, a spokesman for the Ain (Eye) non-government organisation told a press conference "our observers remarked that in general the elections went ahead in an excellent way and there was very little fraud or violations." "We have not reported any violations by the electoral commission," Najem al-Rubaie said. He noted that turnout in the Kurdish provinces in northern Iraq had been exceptionally high. "In Sulaimaniyah, we have had problems in two polling centres where electoral commission staff did not allow observers to enter. But we quickly solved this problem," Rubaie said. Even in the ethnic tinderbox of Kirkuk, where attacks against polling stations had intensified in recent days, he reported only minor attacks against one of them. "But the operation continued normally," he said.