It seemed the secular slates and Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Coalition of the State of Law reigned supreme today during provincial elections in Iraq. Most voters interviewed by McClatchy across the country expressed resentment towards religious parties they'd voted for in the past. While Maliki comes from the Islamic Dawa Party both Shiite and Sunni Arab voters cast ballots for him. He recast himself as a nationalist last year and the election will be an indicator of just how popular he's become. The elections are a litmus test of what's to come during national elections at the end of the year.

Below are quotes from across the country on provincial election day in Iraq some show hope, others resignation and others disdain for a system they feel has brought them nothing:

"We came to the center with enthusiasm, but we didn't vote. We couldn't find our names. This is the third center we've gone to – and don't find our names. I don't want to lose my voice. I'm afraid that if I don't vote, my form will be used for me to vote for God knows whom." -- Umm Atheer, a Sunni Arab mother of two in Baghdad

"The last election I voted for the Supreme Council and got nothing. Today I voted for Maliki's list even though I know nothing about the candidates. I just voted so the Supreme Council doesn't take it. They would steal my vote. I didn't give them the chance to commit forgery."  Bassim Mohammed, 24, a Shiite Arab in Najaf. He refers to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the most powerful Shiite party in Iraq who control most of the southern provinces.

"A long time ago we only dreamed to have something like this in our country. Not long ago we were deprived of a voice." -- Nawal Salam, 48. She and her family were displaced to the Shiite district of Kadhemiyah in Baghdad. Her brother was killed during the sectarian war. She voted for Maliki's party.

"We are voting today with the hope of change. Change in everything – everything. Our lives are a nightmare. We mustn't stand aside silent. We want security. We want harmony in our lives, this has been lost to us for so long now and we miss it, We want normal lives." -- Nemeer Mohammed, a Sunni Arab graduate student in Baghdad.

"I voted for the Fraternity of Nineveh (Kurdish slate) because it represents my race and we hope it would help us get our rights as Kurds. We want to live in peace like others." -- Leila Solaiman Mohammed, 45, a Kurdish housewife in Sheikhan a village in the northern fields of Nineveh province

"Before we were displaced and today I entered the election center safely and chose those who represent me freely." -- Sliwa Najah Matti, 23, an Assyrian college student in Nineveh province

"It's our duty to vote and it is the duty of everbody as well. We are saturated by unjust treatment of the previous people and we hope that the new people will be better than them in time. I do not really believe it can change." -- Abdullah Ahmed, 35, a laborer in Fallujah in Anbar province. The Sunni Arab boycotted the last election

"To elect is a duty for us, the followers of the family of the prophet. I voted for the honest and decent candidates who supports the people with comfort. We didn't have services in the past and we hope to have them in the future." -- Mohammed Ali, 59, a Shiite Arab in Basra and Sadr supporter     

Provincial elections are on Saturday and candidates are dropping. Today three were killed. One in Mosul, another in Baghdad and one in Diyala province.

It's almost expected here. Two others were killed recently as well.

In the United States this would be big news. Here it's a line in the violence report of the day. Better then other days, a huge improvement over the frightening times of more than a year ago but yet still more bloodshed.  

In Diyala Abbas Farhan al Jubouri went to  the village of Mohammed al Maleh to campaign. He is running with the National Movement of Reformation and Development also known as "The Solution."

But he never made it home. He, his cousin and his brother were taken and later their dead bodies were found just north of the village.

He was number six on his party's list. Now he is gone. He leaves behind twelve children.

Today was special voting day. Prisoners with a term of five years or less, hospital employees and security forces went to the polls on Wednesday in advance of Saturday's provincial elections in Iraq.

It was also a small glimpse of what is to come. According to a local organization to protect journalist rights 64 journalists rights were violated across the nation. In Basra, Babil and Anbar journalists were beaten or prevented from entering polling sites by security forces. Their camera equipment was confiscated and in many cases they were cursed at with foul language.

In the southern port city of Basra at Al Mina center where prisoners were voting 15 journalists tried to cover the vote. They were beaten and guards cursed them as they forcibly confiscated or destroyed their equipment, the journalist association reported.

Faisal Binwan, a photographer for the Associated Press said he was beaten and cursed at when he tried to take pictures. Guards used their hands and the butt of their rifles to hit reporters and photographers. For an hour and a half they detained the men and finally allowed them to take pictures of one prisoner voting.

"We demanded to shoot other detainees then they got angry and attacked us by cursing and beating us and they destroyed some cameras," he said. 

The journalists were finally forced to leave.

In Baghdad 20 journalists were stopped from entering polling centers by the Iraqi Army, in Fallujah the Iraqi Army beat and cursed at journalists at at least one polling center if they didn't stay 100 meters away from the site.  Those are a few of the incidents we know of.

We'll see what Saturday brings.

This morning gunmen raided a home in the small Shiite area of Baldrouz, north of Baghdad.  A poor Sunni family who’d moved to the area to work in the local brick factory were slaughtered. Two men, six women and a little girl were killed. The last two men were taken and the family is gone.

In the south in a town called Suaira in Wasit Province another family met the same fate on Thursday. A man, two women and a little boy were killed.  

It’s unclear who did this. Maybe it was revenge, militias, insurgents or a sinister crime. But what is clear that even though things are better they aren’t ok.  People are still dying here and they’re killed almost every day.

Today was a lot like yesterday. A day of unanswered questions in a place somewhere between war and peace.

 But there was one change today. It's not very visible yet but Iraq assumed responsibility for it's security. The United Nations Mandate that allowed U.S.-led forces to operate here expired and it was replaced by a bilateral security agreement between the two nations. The agreement spells out the end of the U.S. military presence here and the end of the Iraq war.

Basically the United States no longer has the legal run of the country authorized by the United Nations. Now an agreement that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities by this summer and from all of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011 goes into affect. 

The agreement changes a few things and here is a list of  some of them:

• Iraqis take control of their air space
• Iraqis take control of the most evoked image of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the almost six year occupation
  
• The U.S. military must now get Iraqi issued arrest warrants and judicial orders
• The U.S. military can only go on joint missions with the Iraq
• The U.S. military must hand over all detainees to the Iraqi government 

As with everything in Iraq the process will be slow, gradual and unpredictable. The Green Zone was handed over to the Iraqis in an official ceremony framed by tall concrete blast walls.It was largely ceremonial.

The transfer of detainees will be a slow process. Americans are still holding almost 16,000 detainees that they will hand over at a rate of 1,500 a month. The military is trying to build cases on 5,000 of the men. Many human rights groups worry that their transfer would subject them to abuse in Iraqi prisons.

U.S. soldiers still manned the checkpoints in and out of the 5.6 square miles of the Green Zone in central Baghdad that houses foreign embassies, top Iraqi leaders' homes, the U.S. embassy and military installations.

Most had one Iraqi soldier looking at badges as U.S. soldiers looked over their shoulders. Badges in the Green Zone are still issued by the U.S. military and the general logistics are handled by them.  It will take at least another six months before everything is settled. About half the population of the Green Zone are U.S. led-coalition forces, including contractors.

On Thursday a tent was set up and officials were serenaded by a marching band playing bag-pipes on a red carpet. Just across the street there was a view of the green portable toilets soldiers use. The Baghdad Brigade, which reports to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's office, will become the Green Zone police. Some worry that it will become Maliki's personal force.

The U.S. military ushered reporters to one checkpoint where a group of Iraqi soldiers from the Baghdad Brigade stood. This was the picture they wanted the world to see _ Iraqis protecting the Green Zone.  At the entrance of the checkpoint U.S. soldiers stood guard deciding who could and could not enter the Green Zone.

The picture we didn't see was the U.S. flag that fluttered over the Republican Palace, the largest of Saddam's palaces, being lowered and taken away. That happened in an uncovered ceremony on Wednesday.

 It has been the home to the U.S. embassy and U.S. operations for years. The Green Zone was built around the ornate building. The ceiling and walls are engraved with Saddam Hussein's initials. And most recently it was the home of the Green Bean Cafe where U.S. officials picked up lattes near a hall turned into a deli-like cafeteria.

Now it is empty save the furniture that Saddam Hussein had in the palace. This morning Maliki called the return of the palace on  New Year's day a "dream that came true."

“This palace is a symbol of Iraqi sovereignty and by its return it is a message to the Iraqi people that Iraqi sovereignty has returned," he said in a ceremony at the palace. “This day is an immortal day and it is our right to regard it as a National holiday.”

Both Maliki and President Jalal Talabani are trying to take the building as their residence.

So now we enter a new time in Iraq. A time between war and peace, a time between occupation and sovereignty. It is a nation in limbo and time will tell if a democracy that respects human rights here thrives or the nation reverts back to a dictatorship. Right now it is neither and many fear that is what Maliki is becoming.

Time will tell if the Iraqi Security Forces can secure the nation, time will tell if the U.S. military adheres to the rules of the agreement and the dates of withdrawal. The future, as always, is uncertain.

Happy New Year, may it bring peace and change.