BAGHDAD, Jan 31 (IPS) - Voting in Baghdad was linked with receipt of food rations, several voters said after the Sunday poll.

Many Iraqis said Monday that their names were marked on a list provided by the government agency that provides monthly food rations before they were allowed to vote...

[...three examples...]

There has been no official indication that Iraqis who did not vote would not receive their monthly food rations...

Calls to the Independent Electoral Commission for Iraq (IECI) and to the Ministry of Trade, which is responsible for the distribution of the monthly food ration, were not returned...

IPS appears to be an established news agency with a Third World emphasis. It's not known what their biases are, if any.

Needless to say, this story has received attention from sites like DemocraticUnderground.

However, there are few other news sources discussing this story.

The Washington Post devotes just fourteen words to it in the story "Iraqis defy insurgency": "Despite rumors that food rations would be taken away if residents failed to vote..."

And, from a Washington Post special correspondent:

A rumor spread [in Tikrit] that anyone who did not vote would lose his or her food rations. But that did nothing to boost turnout in ousted president Saddam Hussein's home town.

"It is a very weak participation in Tikrit," said Khalaf Muhammed, 43, the electoral commission official in charge of a polling station in the city's center -- who acknowledged spreading the false rumor to try to lure voters.

"Even though we spread a rumor in the city saying anyone who doesn't vote will be deprived of their food ration, only 10 people voted . . . mostly old men."

The rumor about food rations also was rife in the Sunni neighborhoods of Baghdad, gaining credence because voter registration rolls were taken from centralized records for the ration of rice, flour, oil and other staples...

(Note that that's from Tikrit, while the IPS report mentions voters in Baghdad.)

This story not directly related to the Iraq vote gives a clue to why this rumor (if it was indeed just a rumor) could be believed: ...All Iraqis were required to vote during Saddam Hussein's reign. Embassy officials told the students that Iraqis who refused to vote for Saddam lost their jobs or food rations...