Iraqis Brace for Historic Election

Dec. 14, 2004 — -- Tonight Iraq is in lockdown ahead of tomorrow's historic election. Cars are banned from the streets -- even the candidates are banned from the streets. There is no campaigning allowed in the 24 hours before polls open at 7 a.m. tomorrow.

Walking around Baghdad this afternoon, several Iraqis were playing soccer on the streets. Most told us they plan to vote tomorrow. One sweaty soccer player told us, "We're tired. We just want a government that's going to make our life easier."

Iraqi troops are working hard to secure the 33,000 polling stations across the country. And the U.S. has boosted troop numbers here by 23,000. All this security is to keep the estimated 10 million voters safe as they go to the polls to elect a National Assembly that will rule this country for the next four years. That assembly then chooses a president and two deputies who then select a prime minister. He, or she, will wield the power in the new Iraq.

Voters will be faced with a dizzying array of candidates on a crowded ballot. Iraq's new politicians have embraced many aspects of Western-style electioneering -- slick television ads and bold campaign posters making vague promises. But they haven't worked very hard on party platforms to make them stand out from the crowd. With nearly 7,000 candidates from more than 300 parties contesting the election, there's little to separate them, apart from the religious or ethnic group they represent.

So, who are the front runners? Ibrahim al Jafaari is the incumbent prime minister and leader of a Shiite religious bloc known as 555. Parties are given numbers on this crowded ballot. Then there's another former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, who leads a secular Shiite party. Shiite Muslims are the majority here and are expected to do very well.

Last time around in January -- when Iraqis voted for an interim government -- the Sunni Muslim minority largely boycotted the vote. An American sham, they claimed. But not this time. One thousand Sunni clerics have urged their followers to vote.

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The hope is that the election will produce a government that all Iraqis feel represents them. That might take the sting out of the insurgency and hasten the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Today there was a word of caution from a prominent Sunni politician, Saleh al Mutlaq. In the garden of his dingy party headquarters in western Baghdad as American choppers clattered overhead, he told me the only hope for Iraq is a broad and secular government.

If Jafaari is re-elected, he told me, "It is a civil war. I have no doubt there will be a civil war between the government and the oppositions. I don't mean between Sunni and Shia. I mean between the government and its people."