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| |  | | | Iraqis go to the polls tomorrow for the first time since 2005 and the days leading up to the election have been marred by violence. On Thursday, three Sunni candidates for provincial council seats were killed in different parts of the country. As reported by the Associated Press, the senior U.N. envoy in Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, called the killings "a terrible crime designed to attempt to disrupt the democratic process on the eve of the elections." "The Iraqi people have overwhelmingly shown their determination for conducting this election fairly and freely, undeterred by isolated intimidating tactics," he said in a statement. It was unclear whether the three killings were part of a broad campaign of intimidation or the result of local rivalries. But the fact that all three were Sunnis appeared significant. Sunni Arabs boycotted the last provincial elections in January 2005, allowing Shiites and Kurds to gain a disproportionate share of power even in areas with large Sunni Arab communities. Sunnis are expected to turn out in large numbers on Saturday to reverse the power imbalance. Meanwhile, unembedded journalist Dahr Jamail reports from Iraq on the lead-up to the election. Today his dispatch from Fallujah reports on the threat of violence hanging over the city as leaders of the Awakening Council fight for political power. As Jamail explained in a separate piece: "the elections, for 444 seats in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces, will be contested by 14,431 candidates from more 400 parties. The agenda covers a spectrum from the central issue of federalism to a range of disputes along sectarian lines." Check out AlterNet's War on Iraq Special Coverage for more on the Iraqi election -- and the results in the days to come. Thanks for reading, Liliana Segura Editor, War on Iraq Special Coverage | | | | PEEK and Video: The hottest buzz and videos on the web | | | | |
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