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Security for the country's first ballot since 2005 was extremely tight with Iraqi police and military deployed in force as part of ramped-up measures aimed at preventing militant attacks, and turnout was forecast to be high.
Only a few incidents of violence marred what was an otherwise peaceful vote which ended at 1500 GMT, an hour later than planned.
About 15 million people were eligible to vote to elect councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Initial results are expected to start rolling in next week, but the complete tally will take several weeks, Iraq's electoral commission chief Faraj al-Haydari told reporters.
The UN special envoy to Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, described voter turnout as "heavy" but declined to provide exact figures until Sunday. Haydari said the turnout would be announced on Sunday at 1000 GMT.
The turnout is being watched carefully, particularly among minority Sunni Arabs who massively boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2005, then still angry about the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
"This is a victory for all the Iraqis," Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after casting his ballot in the highly fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
He said an expected high turnout will be an indicator of "the Iraqi people's trust in their government and in the elections" and "proof that the Iraqi people are now living in real security."
Security has much improved in recent months, but insurgents still mount attacks on civilians and security forces, especially in the mainly Sunni Arab areas of Diyala province and the northern city of Mosul.
"The people are afraid to come to vote because of the terrorists, but I came to vote to show to the people that they don't have to be afraid," said Mushtar Jabar, a 32-year-old taxi driver in Baquba, the capital of Diyala.
Sargun Hanna, 53, a Christian in Hamdaniyah, a town near Mosul, said she had not intended to vote but changed her mind.
"I did not intend to go to give my vote, but I came today to send a message to the terrorists who attacked Christians -- we want to tell them that we are citizens of Iraq."
Saturday's election is seen as a key test of Iraq's steadily improving security and political system as Obama looks to redeploy American troops to Afghanistan, with a target withdrawal date of end-2011.
The president "believes that the provincial elections this weekend mark another significant milestone in Iraq's democratic development," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.
The authorities sealed Iraq's borders, closed airports and imposed transport bans and night-time curfews as part of a massive security lockdown for the election.
In the worst incident on Saturday, US soldiers killed two out-of-uniform Iraqi policemen in a shootout shortly before polls opened near Mosul, the American military said.
Six policemen and a civilian were wounded in a bombing in the mainly Shiite Turkmen town of Tuz Khurmatu north of Baghdad, while in Khanaqin in Diyala hundreds of Kurds stormed an election office demanding to vote.
And in the Sunni Arab town of Tikrit, the hometown of executed dictator Saddam, four flash bombs exploded near several polling centres, but police said there were no casualties.
About 800 international observers oversaw the ballot.
More than 14,400 candidates stood for 440 seats in councils, which appoint the provincial governor and oversee finance and reconstruction, with a combined budget of 2.5 billion dollars.
The vote is also seen as a quasi-referendum on Maliki, who has emerged as a stronger leader promoting a secular agenda in response to sectarian strife that tore Iraq apart after the invasion.
Voting did not however take place in the three autonomous Kurdish provinces -- Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah -- and polling has been postponed in oil-rich Kirkuk, which the Kurds want to incorporate into their own region.
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Image of UN envoy Staffan de Mistura checking the seals on a ballot box during a tour of polling stations in several Iraqi cities including Baghdad, by Ali al-Saadi.
Only a few incidents of violence marred what was an otherwise peaceful vote which ended at 1500 GMT, an hour later than planned.
About 15 million people were eligible to vote to elect councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Initial results are expected to start rolling in next week, but the complete tally will take several weeks, Iraq's electoral commission chief Faraj al-Haydari told reporters.
The UN special envoy to Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, described voter turnout as "heavy" but declined to provide exact figures until Sunday. Haydari said the turnout would be announced on Sunday at 1000 GMT.
The turnout is being watched carefully, particularly among minority Sunni Arabs who massively boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2005, then still angry about the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
"This is a victory for all the Iraqis," Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after casting his ballot in the highly fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
He said an expected high turnout will be an indicator of "the Iraqi people's trust in their government and in the elections" and "proof that the Iraqi people are now living in real security."
Security has much improved in recent months, but insurgents still mount attacks on civilians and security forces, especially in the mainly Sunni Arab areas of Diyala province and the northern city of Mosul.
"The people are afraid to come to vote because of the terrorists, but I came to vote to show to the people that they don't have to be afraid," said Mushtar Jabar, a 32-year-old taxi driver in Baquba, the capital of Diyala.
Sargun Hanna, 53, a Christian in Hamdaniyah, a town near Mosul, said she had not intended to vote but changed her mind.
"I did not intend to go to give my vote, but I came today to send a message to the terrorists who attacked Christians -- we want to tell them that we are citizens of Iraq."
Saturday's election is seen as a key test of Iraq's steadily improving security and political system as Obama looks to redeploy American troops to Afghanistan, with a target withdrawal date of end-2011.
The president "believes that the provincial elections this weekend mark another significant milestone in Iraq's democratic development," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.
The authorities sealed Iraq's borders, closed airports and imposed transport bans and night-time curfews as part of a massive security lockdown for the election.
In the worst incident on Saturday, US soldiers killed two out-of-uniform Iraqi policemen in a shootout shortly before polls opened near Mosul, the American military said.
Six policemen and a civilian were wounded in a bombing in the mainly Shiite Turkmen town of Tuz Khurmatu north of Baghdad, while in Khanaqin in Diyala hundreds of Kurds stormed an election office demanding to vote.
And in the Sunni Arab town of Tikrit, the hometown of executed dictator Saddam, four flash bombs exploded near several polling centres, but police said there were no casualties.
About 800 international observers oversaw the ballot.
More than 14,400 candidates stood for 440 seats in councils, which appoint the provincial governor and oversee finance and reconstruction, with a combined budget of 2.5 billion dollars.
The vote is also seen as a quasi-referendum on Maliki, who has emerged as a stronger leader promoting a secular agenda in response to sectarian strife that tore Iraq apart after the invasion.
Voting did not however take place in the three autonomous Kurdish provinces -- Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah -- and polling has been postponed in oil-rich Kirkuk, which the Kurds want to incorporate into their own region.
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Image of UN envoy Staffan de Mistura checking the seals on a ballot box during a tour of polling stations in several Iraqi cities including Baghdad, by Ali al-Saadi.
