The Independent High Electoral Commission began the counting and sorting process of Iraq´s special voting in an office in eastern Baghdad.

Iraqi troops, police, prisoners and the infirm began voting on Thursday, three days ahead of a parliamentary election seen as pivotal for a divided country which U.S. troops are scheduled to leave by the end of 2011.

Special voting was taking place for groups not able to cast ballots in Sunday´s poll, most of them from the 670,000-strong security forces assigned to protect voting stations.

Some Iraqi and Arab satellite channels have expressed fears that the results of the March election could be rigged.

The outcome of the election, Iraq´s second full national poll since the invasion, will test progress towards stability.

Sunday´s election is a test for Iraq´s young democracy, and will help determine whether Iraq can avoid relapsing into violence as U.S. forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday (March 3) only an "extraordinarily dire" security deterioration would warrant a slowdown in plans for the remaining 96,000 U.S. troops to end combat operations in August and withdraw completely by the end of next year.