BAGHDAD — Provincial council candidate Fareeq Khazaali moves through the crowds of shoppers on Mutanabi Street with the confidence and ease of a veteran politician, shaking hands and smiling, as his children, wearing homemade campaign T-shirts, distribute leaflets.
When he's not pressing the flesh, he's sending frequent text messages ("Greetings. Please elect your candidate Fareeq Khazaali.") and making friends on Facebook -- surprising political sophistication for a novice candidate in a country taking baby steps toward democracy.
As Iraq nears its provincial elections day, Jan. 31, residents are faced with ballots that could make even a seasoned voter's head spin. In total across the country, 14,400 candidates representing 407 political entities are vying for 440 seats.
Fourteen of Iraq's 18 provinces are holding elections, and the crowded field in some of them -- in Baghdad alone, there are more than 2,400 candidates -- is only one of the challenges facing those seeking office. They also must deal with security concerns and questionable campaign tactics of some contenders who are giving away cooking oil, blankets and cash.
As the candidates mingle with the public, they are easy targets for assassins. On Dec. 31, gunmen in the northern city of Mosul shot and killed a candidate in broad daylight while he was walking down the street. U.S. and Iraqi authorities have warned of a potential increase in violence as the elections near.
Still, many of the politicians are undeterred.
"In terms of parties and candidates, you're not going to see a lot of phone calling and phone banking," said Erin Mathews, director of Iraq programs for the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, which is holding workshops for nearly 800 Iraqi candidates. "More of the parties are doing things like pamphlets, door hangers and door-to-door campaigning, which sounds tremendously impossible in Iraq, but it's not."
Candidate Abdul Aboodi is handing out a written "receipt of guarantee" in the city of Najaf, a "guarantee in front of God that I promise to be obliged to change the reality and . . . to be honest and to follow up all issues in the provincial council."
Khazaali, a Shiite Muslim on the secular Iraqi Nation Party slate, walked along Mutanabi Street, famous for its booksellers and site of a 2007 suicide bombing that left 30 dead, while several armed guards stood in the distance.
