MODEST BEGINNINGS:

Smaller Parties Jostle for Piece of Iraq Election Pie (Ashraf Khalil, December 15, 2004, LA Times)

The only sound disturbing the rural stillness as Jawdat Obeidi laid out his election battle plan was the tinkling of spoons in dozens of tea cups.

"We have 50 days. We have to exploit every minute," Obeidi told the more than 60 men seated cross-legged on the floor of a house outside this southern Iraqi city. "We have to use all the influence we can — tribal, religious, social and otherwise — to get as many votes as we can."

The slightly rumpled former exile, who long ago served in Saddam Hussein's army, spent the recent afternoon flanked by an array of rural tribal elders, turbaned religious sheiks and doctors and engineers in suits. The purpose: final planning before campaigning for Iraq's parliamentary election officially begins today.

Iraq's electoral landscape is crowded with powerhouse coalitions boasting insider status and nationwide reach. Major blocs backed by Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim religious leadership and by officials from the former Iraqi Governing Council are expected to win a large share of the national assembly's 275 seats.

But Obeidi, 47, has high hopes for his comparatively modest Iraqi Unified Democratic Congress coalition, which has joined a 150-candidate slate for the Jan. 30 legislative election. The assembly will be charged with forming a government and writing a national constitution.

For Muslims they sure do a good imitation of democrats.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 15, 2004 9:05 AM