A Sydney polling booth for Iraqis voting in their country's historic election was shut down for an hour today after a punch-up involving protesters and a subsequent bomb scare. Organiser of Australia's overseas voting program, Bernie Hogan, said the fight erupted when a group of around 20 protesters started yelling at voters leaving the Auburn centre. "They were on one side of the road protesting against the election while voters were coming out proudly with ink on their hands," Mr Hogan said. "The next thing I knew there's 50 people and a bit of push and shove and punching in the middle of road." The incident was cleared quickly but a bomb scare followed when a backpack was found abandoned nearby. The polling centre was closed and police cordoned off the area while the contents of the bag were examined. "It ended up being water and biscuits ... but we had to be cautious."The protesters had been granted a permit to stage their anti-election action for two hours. Mr Hogan said they were holding the same black flag with white lettering that has appeared as a backdrop in videos released by Iraqi insurgents featuring foreign hostages begging for their lives. International Organisation for Migration Iraqi adviser Thair Wali said the protesters' flag and Arabic slogans identified them as Wahabis, or followers of an austere brand of Sunni Islam practised mostly in Saudi Arabia. Mr Wali said the fight was sparked by protesters taking photographs of voters leaving the station. "This is scary for the people, taking photos of the voting" he said. Many of Australia's estimated 80,000 Iraqis declined to register for the election, fearing that their votes would make relatives in Iraq terrorist targets. By late afternoon today, organisers said around 5000 of Australia's 12,000 registered Iraqis had turned up at the polls. The polling station would remain open for an extra hour to compensate for the closure.