Rising Violence and Fear Drive Iraq Campaigners Underground -NYT

[Rose Siding]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 15 - The threat of death hung so heavily over the election rally, held this week on the fifth floor of the General Factory for Vegetable Oil, that the speakers refused to say whether they were candidates at all.

"Too dangerous," said Hussein Ali, who spoke for the United Iraqi Alliance, a party fielding dozens of candidates for the elections here. "It's a secret."
And then Mr. Ali and his colleagues left, escorted by men with guns.

So goes the election campaign unfolding across Iraq, a country simultaneously set to embark on an American-backed political experiment while writhing under a guerrilla insurgency dead set on disrupting the experiment.

With only two weeks go to before the vote, scheduled for Jan. 30, guerrillas have stepped up their attacks and driven most candidates deep indoors.
...
The predicament for candidates was spelled out on a flier passed around town by the United Iraqi Alliance. The flier listed the names of 37 candidates for the national assembly. The 188 others, the flier said, could not be published.

"Our apologies for not mentioning the names of all the candidates," the flier said. "But the security situation is bad, and we have to keep them alive."

http://nytimes.com/2005/01/16/international/middleeast/16election.html?hp&ex=1105851600&en=f3173f5d3f0260d9&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Journeyman]

1. I don't see what the problem is. . .

Here's the slate of candidates:

1)
2)
3)


Here's their campaign plaforms:

1)

2)

3)


Here's your polling place:




Now, all the Iraqi's have to do is make an intelligent choice from the list above, vote their conscience at the polling place listed, and freedom, love and democracy will flower in their desert wonderland.

I just don't see what possible confusion there could be.

[Rose Siding]

2. ROFL- Dr Khuzai, on Allawi's slate, has an interesting campaign style...

Raja al-Khuzai...spends nearly all of her time inside Dr. Allawi's heavily fortified compound, surrounded by armed guards. Instead of campaigning, she sends volunteers into the streets to talk to voters on her behalf.

"They come back and tell me the vision of the people," Dr. Khuzai said.

[Wright Patman]

3. Damn, even Saddam got out

more than that.

He was a regular "man of the people" compared to the U.S. puppets.

Has there been a directive issued to the Iraqis not to look in Allawi's eyes as there has been here with **?

[LibDemAlways]

4. Could this thing be any more of a sham?

How many Americans would venture out on election day if explosions at polling places were a good possibility? It's a foregone conclusion that the Allawi stooges are going to "win" so why even bother?