BAGHDAD — Mohammad Jassim Labban appears on the TV screen, frozen against a flat blue and white backdrop.
Eyes moving over an unseen script, he reads in an earnest monotone, promising to improve education, healthcare and retiree benefits as the candidate of the left-wing Coalition of the United People.
"My dear fellow citizens," he says in conclusion, "your vote will increase our potential to realize these objectives for a better life for the present and future of our beloved boys and girls."
Far from Madison Avenue -- in more ways than one -- television commercials are emerging as a crucial element in Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 election.
The first partisan spots ran last week, produced and aired for free on U.S.-backed Al Iraqiya, the sole channel based in Iraq that broadcasts nationwide.
Bolder still, the Iraqi List, the election slate headed by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, is buying prime-time spots on satellite and local channels.
In a nation unused to competitive elections, some Iraqis are suggesting that such tactics could backfire, appearing elitist or insincere.
But Adnan Janabi, a minister of State for the interim government and campaign chairman for the Iraqi List, said there was no other way to rise above the multitude of choices and reach voters in a country where insurgent attacks have made grass-roots campaigning dangerous.
"We have no inhibitions about being too rich, being too slick, being too Western, being too sophisticated," Janabi said. "What interests us is reaching 14 million people" -- the registered voters of Iraq.
When Iraqis head to the polls, they will face a daunting ballot listing more than 230 candidate slates vying for portions of the 275-seat transitional national assembly, which will draft the nation's constitution.
Information is gleaned mostly on the streets, in mosques and from television.
Here, the power of television far outstrips that of radio -- plentiful, but hyper-local -- and newspapers, which proliferated after the fall of Saddam Hussein but still have a circulation of 300,000 in a nation of 25 million.
Iraq has more than 20 licensed local TV stations. A survey showed that as much as 65% of the population had once-banned satellite dishes through which they got popular international channels such as Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and a new favorite, Al Sharqiya.
