I guess we’re about to find out just how infiltrated the Iraqi police and military are:
The run-up to Sunday’s vote is pressing every available American service member into action in most of Iraq – assisting an Iraqi-ordered nationwide ban on traffic from Saturday to Monday to block car bombs and other attacks on election targets; and preparing to respond to any Iraqi request for help repelling assaults or tending casualties.
The election plan puts the might of the U.S. military in a full-force back-up role. U.S. forces are funneling stepped-up training, hundreds of fixed barricades and miles of razor wire, weapons, body armor, communication systems, generators and the fuel to run them, and even water and meals-ready-to-eat rations to Iraqi police and troops charged with the front-line defense of polling sites.
Politicians are not alone in distributing propaganda leaflets. Yesterday insurgents walked though a district of eastern Baghdad handing out their own election leaflets. They carried a warning: “Those who dare to stand in the lines of death to participate in the elections will be responsible for the consequences that will be heavy.”
With mounting security concerns, the locations of many of the 5,000 polling centres across Iraq have not been announced. When the buildings have been identified – usually schools which are now empty for the holidays – they have promptly been shelled or mortared by insurgents. Three schools in the otherwise quiet city of Basra in the south were destroyed last week in a mortar attack. It is still unclear how and when voters will be told where to vote.
On election day motorists will be banned from the roads and a nationwide curfew will be imposed between 8pm and 6am. Voters must walk to polling centres, where they will find several security cordons ringing each station. They must then pass through the many security checks before they can finally enter the booth, unfold the vast ballot paper in front of them, choose one of the 111 parties contesting the election and tick the correct box.