Election campaigning started Friday with party workers putting up election advertisements across Baghdad, and like last year's provincial election, fierce competition is likely to turn cities once more into forests of banners and posters.
Sitting on an oilfield but ravaged by years of bombs and militia battles, Baghdad's Sadr City slum is for many a symbol of the political incompetence and corruption which have sapped voter enthusiasm and led to mismanagement of Iraq's vast oil wealth.
"I hear people say that Sadr City is rich, but I do not see the wealth. Why do my children not look rich? Why do the streets look like this?" asked Raziqa Fokus, a widow and mother of five. "I will not take part in the election because I did not see anything tangible from the government," she said, while heading out to throw a sack of garbage into the street. Another resident complained that rubbish usually remains uncollected for months.
Iraqi and US officials hope the March 7 parliamentary election will solidify the country's young democracy and draw former insurgents and militias into the political process just as US troops prepare to withdraw.
The sectarian warfare unleashed by the 2003 US invasion has receded. But tensions between Sunnis and Shiites remain high, stoked by the government's rhetoric against Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party and moves to ban candidates accused of Baathist ties.
In Sadr City, one of several Iraqi slums full of unemployed young men ripe for recruitment by insurgent, militia or criminal groups, ragged boys played in a stagnant pool of water. The smell of raw sewage and garbage wafts through the air.
An ugly web of wires crisscrosses the slum, an informal electricity grid hooked up to diesel generators to compensate for Iraq's patchy national network that still provides far less than 24 hours of electricity per day.
"I'm just an employee. Corruption, a lack of coordination and haphazard decisions at the Electricity Ministry are to blame," said an electrical engineer, declining to be named.
Iraq is one of the world's most corrupt countries according to watchdog Transparency International.
Jinan Abdul-Jabbar, a lawmaker and member of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, disputed accusations of poor government performance. Security, on which Al-Maliki is expected to base his campaign, has improved dramatically.
"There were priorities and people understand that — security first then the services," said Jabbar.
Iraq's infrastructure has crumbled after decades of war and sanctions, making rebuilding in a few years a tall order. "I believe that despite the challenges that faced the government, it managed to achieve a lot," said Jabbar.
In recent months a few garbage trucks have appeared in Sadr City, home to about 3 million people, a policeman said. But he added that residents would "not be fooled" by a service he did not expect to last much beyond the elections.
Many Iraqis may yet end up voting according to religious, political and tribal affiliation, and not the competence of candidates, said Baghdad University analyst Saad Al-Hadithi.
