The BBC News website is keeping track of key events minute-by-minute through the day. (All times are in GMT. Iraq is three hours ahead.)

1006: An explosion is reported outside the interim justice minister's house; the minister was out but at least two guards are reported injured.

0947: Reports suggest at least two more policemen may have died in Baghdad attacks.

0855: At least six people die in another suicide bombing of a queue outside a polling station in eastern Baghdad.

0754: Another suicide bomber strikes in western Baghdad, killing at least one person, thought to be a policeman.

0706: Suicide bomber detonates a bomb in a queue of voters in western Baghdad, killing four people.

0656: Mortar strikes polling station in Sadr City, Baghdad, killing four.

0644: Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi casts vote in the Green Zone.

0554: Blast reported in centre of southern city of Basra.

0539: Explosions reported in Baquba, 50km (30 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Cause unknown.

0532: Policeman confirmed killed in the first Baghdad blast.

0531: Witnesses report several loud explosions in central Baghdad.

0518: The first report of an explosion near a polling station in western Baghdad.

0410: President Ghazi al-Yawer is among the first to cast his vote, in a polling station within the Green Zone fortified complex in Baghdad.

0400 GMT (0700 local time): Polls officially open, though one station in Basra opened early as queues were already building.