Iraqi-style politics: Stormy, flashy and often furtive

[ECH1969]

BAGHDAD, Iraq — After putting up 100,000 posters across Iraq to promote his political party, Hamid Kifai discovered last week that they had been torn down, even ones at his campaign headquarters in the south.

"They have made it impossible for us to compete," said Kifai, a stocky, talkative Shiite candidate who spent his entire $50,000 war chest on the posters and has nothing left. "This is not democracy."

It is democracy, but in a distinctly Iraqi style.

So far, the campaign has been as turbulent as any endeavor in Iraq. In the past two weeks, 11 people associated with Allawi's group have been killed, including one of its leading candidates in southern Iraq. "I think these negative tactics will backfire," said Azzam Alwash, an ebullient 47-year-old civil engineer who is co-director of the campaign for Allawi's coalition.

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