In the United Arab Emirates, where nearly 12,600 Iraqis registered, voters cheered and clapped as they cast their ballots.

"I would have crawled to vote for my Iraq," said an elderly woman in a wheelchair.

"It is the chance we have been waiting for, for decades," said 60-year-old physician Nazem Kazem Saoodi, who turned up 15 minutes after polls opened.

"Yes, we did it!" shouted Ali al-Kabeer, clapping his hands after casting his ballot and breaking into tears as he hugged his wife who also voted.

Six polling stations were open in Iran, which has the largest number of expatriates registered to vote -- almost 61,000 people.

At a mosque in the holy city of Qom, Iraqis -- men in one line, women in another -- waited patiently to cast votes and voiced their dreams of a new Shiite future for Iraq.

"The future government must be Islamic and pleasing to God," said 35-year-old theology student Samir al-Shamari.

Ghassem, an Iraqi Shiite aged 38, concurred, saying: "The future authority must be an Islamic republic but not resemble that of Iran."