Election pitch reveals Iraq's ethos, divisions

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BAGHDAD -- In America, voter education means learning how to work touch-screen voting machines. In Iraq, it is an ayatollah's religious decree instructing husbands that they must allow their wives to vote in the Jan. 30 national assembly elections.

In Iraq, as elsewhere in the world, candidates court the press. But in Iraq, the courtship included handouts of $100 bills to reporters who attended a recent press conference by Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's faction.

Security is tight in any election. In Iraq, with the constant threat of the insurgency, it means that the locations of voting centers will not be revealed until the last minute.

As for the candidates, most of their identities are being kept secret, too.

The campaign leading to the elections on Sunday is exposing the country's values and divisions.

In Iraq, that means contentious Islamic fundamentalism, appeals for tribal endorsements, nostalgia for more peaceful times and calls for a return to monarchy.

Politicians are searching for the messages that will entice a war-weary public. The insurgents, who have slain candidates and targeted election workers, clearly are seeking to derail the vote. Iraqi newspapers bristle with electoral pronouncements, promises and gossip.

Polls and casual conversations indicate that most Iraqis want to vote, even though many have safety concerns.

A newspaper advertisement from Iraq's electoral commission urges people to walk to the voting places because car traffic will be forbidden, a measure prompted by a wave of car bombings amounting to about a blast a day since early September.

The ad also instructs that "voting will be secret and individual." When Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein held sham referendums on his presidency, heads of households or party hacks used to fill out the ballots for many.