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Spotlight on vote-buying on eve of Iraqi ballot
Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:18pm EST
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By Waleed Ibrahim
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - On the eve of Iraq's provincial polls, reports of attempts to buy votes and fears about fraud threaten to cast a shadow over an otherwise vibrant campaign that will test the country's growing security.
The independent electoral commission said it had received very few complaints about attempts to garner votes with gifts, but the issue has become a talking point among Iraqis before Saturday's voting.
In one Baghdad park this week, a leading Shi'ite Muslim party distributed blankets with a pamphlet inserted in the folds instructing would-be voters which candidates to choose.
Other parties have doled out watches to win favor, and in one case, furnished a teenage football team with uniforms. The campaign events were all witnessed by Reuters correspondents.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki rejected media reports about attempted vote fraud. "We want to show the world our elections are transparent," he said.
But the irregularities are blots on a campaign that has been far more spirited than Iraq's other elections since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. Candidates previously feared for their lives, and hid their identities.
More than 14,000 candidates are vying for 440 provincial council seats in 14 of 18 provinces. The election in Kirkuk province was postponed by a political dispute, while three Kurdish regions will vote later this year.
A vehicle ban and curfew came into force early in the still violent northern city of Mosul, where al Qaeda has been active, and police and Iraqi troops have been deployed in the streets elsewhere as security was tightened ahead of the vote.
The polls will test support for Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim, ahead of a parliamentary election later in the year.
They may also help soothe some Sunni Arab grievances that are fuelling continuing violence in provinces like Nineveh, where Mosul is the capital, and Diyala, where Sunnis lack political power after boycotting the last election in 2005.
For weeks, Iraq has been awash with colorful posters and banners and alive with the sounds of festive campaign rallies.
WHO CAN WE TRUST?
But some fear the apparently enthusiastic endorsement of democracy will inevitably be undermined by fraud.
Mithal al-Alusi, a parliamentarian who heads a secular list of candidates, accused some parties of using state funds.
"How can we trust those who are not trustworthy, those who believe they have the right to use the public funds?" he asked. Continued...
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