Iraq works to make election more fair

BAGHDAD -- United Nations and Iraqi officials on Sunday announced a plan to make Iraq's January elections more transparent and fair in what are expected to be heated races for control of the nation's provincial governments.

The Jan. 31 elections will differ from Iraq's 2005 contests in one major respect: This time, candidates' names will appear on the ballot instead of lists of political parties.

"That's what you are going to see -- people," said U.N. Special Representative Steffan de Mistura, holding up a blue sample ballot. "You will put faces to the people, and you will vote for them if you feel comfortable with them."

Iraq concealed the identities of candidates in the previous election as a safety measure. Security has improved significantly since then, though elections can still be dangerous for candidates and election workers. Iraq's election office displays photos of its employees who have been killed over the past five years.

De Mistura and Faraj al Haydari, chairman of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission, said security would be a priority, though they didn't describe measures to ensure safety.

In what may have been an effort to disrupt election preparations, a rocket hit inside Baghdad's International Zone Saturday, killing two contractors and injuring 15 in the U.N. compound.

De Mistura said it wasn't clear whether the attacker aimed for the U.N. offices.

"We are expecting spectacular attempts to disrupt the stability of Iraq and the elections," he said. "These are attempts that are not going to disrupt the tendency in which Iraq is going."

He gave a glimpse of steps the U.N. is taking with the election commission to prevent fraud and bolster confidence in the January vote.

One measure will call on poll workers to post the names of all registered voters at each voting station. That's meant to prevent people from voting twice.

Iraq plans to have its teachers work at those stations instead of people associated with political parties, in an effort coordinated with the country's Ministry of Education.

The U.N. and the National Democratic Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, have trained about 60,000 monitors for the Iraqi elections. They're aiming to recruit 200,000 observers.

Iraq budgeted $225 million for the provincial vote. Of that, $100 million has been received by the election commission, Haydari said.

He said about 2.9 million Iraqis registered. They represent about 13 million voters, because heads of households can register for their family members. About 17 million Iraqis are eligible to vote, officials said.