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...Saadi family in Baghdad, the Jan. 30 election can't come soon enough. "I'd like to go out and vote right now," says Karim, 43, an electrical-goods salesman who supports a family of 12. His neighborhood, the hardscrabble district of Washash, home to a mainly Shi'ite population of laborers and small traders, is one of the few in Iraq's capital where a high voter turnout is predicted. His mother Sabiha has lofty hopes for what an elected Iraqi government can achieve. "It will solve all our problems," she says. "We will have electricity, my children will...
With insurgents promising to sow chaos on election day, the mere act of casting a ballot has become a life-threatening proposition. Even in the holy city of Najaf, in the heart of largely Shi'ite southern Iraq, there are palpable fears of election-related violence. "Every day I watch when a car pulls up in the street," says Abbas Hamid Abdul Rezea as U.S. Marines erect concrete barricades across the road from his home at a school that will serve as a polling station. "Every day we are so scared...
...into the northern parts of the country. Those are areas with heavy concentrations of Sunni Arabs, who make up only 20% of Iraq's population yet ruled Iraq during Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. They know that in democracies the majority rules, and that in Iraq long-suppressed Shi'ite Muslims--who make up 60% of the population--are the majority. As distasteful as the prospect of Shi'ite dominance may be to some Sunnis, many would would prefer democracy to Saddam's tyranny. But with less than two weeks before the vote, U.S. officials admit that the insurgents have succeeded...
...President but, more important, will also draw up a new constitution. If Sunnis don't vote in sufficient numbers--an official with a nongovernmental organization in Baghdad says that a Sunni turnout of "under 50% becomes a problem"--the drafting of the constitution will be dominated by Shi'ite Muslims. And that would further alienate Sunnis and embolden extremists, including terrorist mastermind Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, who has called for an all-out sectarian civil war against the Shi'ites...
...Sunni minority will go to the polls--perhaps not even 10%--which could undermine the election's legitimacy. "Many people from Arab countries will say this is not a correct election," says Dr. Sa'ad Abdul al-Razzak of Pachachi's party. U.S. officials say they will urge Shi'ite leaders to reach out to Sunnis after the election to bring them into the government and make sure they are sufficiently represented. "We believe the process will have Sunni input," says the U.S. official. "We believe all Iraqis understand representation is crucial." --By Christopher Allbritton and John F. Dickerson