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Iraqi candidates stealthily campaign

Jan- 5-2005 » Filed Under: Iraq News

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BY DIONNE SEARCEY, STAFF CORRESPONDENT

MOSUL, Iraq -- Mud-slinging is the last thing Dr. Hunain al-Qaddo has to worry about now that campaign season is in full swing and he is competing with more than 200 slates of candidates for a spot in the country's first democratically elected parliament.

Al-Qaddo fears for his life.

A month ago, when insurgents learned he was planning to run in the Jan. 30 election, they burned down his house. Al-Qaddo, who has hired bodyguards, is operating a stealth campaign. He plans to put up posters for his party's Unified Iraqi Coalition only after Jan. 15 when U.S. military reinforcements are in full operation here - and only in the hours before dawn, when no one is around.

Al-Qaddo, 55, an economics professor at Mosul University, hasn't decided whether he'll even risk telling his students that he's running. "We have to be very careful," he said. "I will try to find some way to do this campaign."

Al-Qaddo's secret bid offers a narrow window into the faltering elections process in beleaguered Mosul, which has exploded in violence. The security situation has deteriorated so much here that several high-ranking elections officials have abandoned their posts after being threatened and, in one case, kidnapped.

Residents are afraid even to talk about politics, let alone hold open debates, because of militant groups' posters warning that anyone participating in the elections will be beheaded.

People of Mosul will join the rest of Iraq in selecting from slates of 223 candidates and coalitions to represent them in parliament and to help draft a constitution. The slates, many broken down along religious and ethnic lines, include the Turkmen Loyalty Movement, the Twentieth Revolution Grandchildren Gathering and the Niche Martyr Foundation for Islamic Notification, to name a few.


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