Focus on election campaigning

With only three days to go until Iraq's historic election, many people in the capital, Baghdad, say they don't have any idea of who they are going to vote for and have little information on what each party is offering. This is mainly due to insecurity hampering election campaigns. It is also the first time a democratic election has been held in Iraq and the process of educating the population on this has been slow due to the situation in the country. Officials from the electoral commission have responded by saying that with very little time left, it is now down to people themselves to search for more information. Threats against campaigning politicians have led to a very slow dissemination of party manifestos and some candidates have stopped publicising their movements, especially in the capital, in fear of their lives. "I was attacked with my friends when we were publishing our agenda posters on the streets of Baghdad. A car passed by and fired at us. There is no safety and sometimes even our families can be targets. We want to help the Iraqis to know more about elections but insurgents don't want that," Mahmoud al-Shirin, member of an Islamic party, told IRIN in Baghdad. Candidates in Baghdad say their job has been difficult, particularly in recent days, especially after insurgents declared that they would be targeted. Attacks have become more common in recent days. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political party headquarters in Baghdad were attacked on 24 January by a suicide bomber, injuring at least 10 people. Farid Ayar, deputy for the Higher Independent Electoral Commission (HIEC) told IRIN that polling station locations would only be disclosed close to 30 January and security measures were being implemented. "We cannot do anything more to help them [candidates] with publicising political agendas. The elections are not long off and we have to take care of security first," Ayar added. There are over 18,000 candidates on 256 political party lists running for a 275-member national assembly, according to the US State Department. Most of the campaigning is being done in government offices, mosques and schools where candidates can expect at least minimum security and at the same time introduce themselves and their proposals. The majority of manifestoes promise the same things: security, water, petrol, electricity, employment and peace. Some 14 million people are eligible to vote in Iraq, but election officials told IRIN that they were expecting between 6 and 8 million to vote on the day. Approximately 6,000 polling stations have been set up across the country and the election will be monitored by 25,000 Iraqis, according to the US State Department. Kurdish parties campaigning in the capital have also received threats. Some have stopped work in central Iraq and are concentrating on attracting voters in the north where security is better. "I hope for Iraq to be a country without differences, but some people don't care about a democratic future," Diar Junsati, a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told IRIN. Junsati added that they have been working hard to mobilise the Kurdish vote for the national assembly and have their seats in the Baghdad government. "Even between threats we will continue with our political agendas. We are talking about the future of a country that will go down in history," he added. Iraq's Kurds have enjoyed autonomy in the north since the Gulf war in 1991. Now the two main Kurdish parties, the PUK and the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), who were opponents for more than a decade, have united for the election and will stand together to win as many seats as possible in the national assembly with a view to influencing the new constitution. Voters in the capital say they want to see results. "I don't care about what they promise. The one thing I care about is who in the assembly will guarantee security and health for us, because we really need those two issues [resolved], but so far haven't decided who to vote for," Linda Ahmed, 37,a shopkeeper in the Mansour district of Baghdad, told IRIN. At a press conference on Monday, Allawi said that the situation would be critical on the election day and acknowledged that most parties were afraid of campaigning for security reasons. But he added that risks needed to be taken in order to secure Iraq's future. Despite reassurances, candidates and voters are still worried, as insurgent groups have said that attacks will take place on election day, especially at polling stations. The Al Quaeda-linked group led by Iraq's most-wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi group, has distributed leaflets threatening to behead people who vote. "I wish to give my vote, but as election day becomes closer the security in the country is worse. God bless all Iraqis and make the insurgents understand that they are talking about lives of innocent people who just want to do their job," Sua'ad Finjen, 39, a mother of two, told IRIN.