Placards on the streets of Baghdad. Top: Al-Maliki's State of Law; bottom: Ayad Allawi's Al-Iraqiyah
Iraqis awoke Friday morning, February 12, the first day of official campaigning, to a massive display of election posters in public areas and streets on behalf of more than 6,000 candidates competing for the 325 seats in the Iraqi parliament.
The polling is scheduled for March 7. About 19 million Iraqis are eligible voters, in addition to 1.4 million voters in 16 Arab and foreign countries.
The posters carry slogans as well as the number assigned to a list or individuals by a lottery system. Thus, the coalition of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki carries the number 337, and Ayad Allawi's coalition is number 333 (see above).
Among the catchy slogans are those of the State of Law "The Voice of Truth; The Voice of the People," or that of the liberal candidate Mithal Al-Alousi, who heads the Nation Party (hizb al-umma): "Together We Shall Repair What Others Have Spoiled."
[The large coalitions will submit lists of candidates for each of Iraq's 18 provinces. According to the "open list" system adopted by the parliament, the voters may vote for the whole list or they may rank the individual candidates on the list according to their choice. Hence, candidates are campaigning as individuals to convince the voters to give them a higher ranking than that in which they were listed by their political parties. Depending on the number of voters casting their ballots, it is estimated that a candidate would require about 50,000 votes to be elected.]
Source: Al-Zaman, Iraq, February 13, 2010
