March 5, 2010 8:48 PM
- Text
Changes Seen Ahead of Key Iraqi Vote
Election rallies are still a novelty in Iraq, but politicians have caught on fast, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports.
The main challenger in this weekend's parliamentary elections, Ayad Allawi, was recently seen promising a crowd jobs and a better standard of living.
The incumbent, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, says he'll do the same thing, but better. And he's claiming credit for improved security.
It's true that where armed militias used to fight over power, now 6,529 political candidates are battling it out on the campaign trail.
With only a day to go before the election, voters were out enjoying the sun and talking over their political choices in a park which, just two years ago, was a "no go" zone controlled by murderous gangs.
The big change here - in fact, the overwhelming change - is no matter where you look, anywhere you go, there is no sign at all of American troops.
Now the Iraqi police and army are in charge of security. Sectarian violence, like a 2007 bombing in the crowded Shorja market, has killed between 70,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Today a revitalized Shorja is once again bustling with shoppers. Iraqis are slowly recovering from the trauma of war.
Mohammed M'Sayr, an artist, has been paiting scenes from Iraq's history onto the concrete barriers that shield Baghdad's roads from bombs. "I've transformed them into something beautiful," he says, "to help people feel happy."
But people understandably remains furious about some things: crippling unemployment; public services like garbage collection that don't exist; and power. Incredibly, the average Baghdad family still only gets six hours of electricity a day.
Many Iraqis think corruption is partly to blame, just one of the things they'll be able to vote on this Sunday.
Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved. The main challenger in this weekend's parliamentary elections, Ayad Allawi, was recently seen promising a crowd jobs and a better standard of living.
The incumbent, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, says he'll do the same thing, but better. And he's claiming credit for improved security.
It's true that where armed militias used to fight over power, now 6,529 political candidates are battling it out on the campaign trail.
With only a day to go before the election, voters were out enjoying the sun and talking over their political choices in a park which, just two years ago, was a "no go" zone controlled by murderous gangs.
The big change here - in fact, the overwhelming change - is no matter where you look, anywhere you go, there is no sign at all of American troops.
Now the Iraqi police and army are in charge of security. Sectarian violence, like a 2007 bombing in the crowded Shorja market, has killed between 70,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Today a revitalized Shorja is once again bustling with shoppers. Iraqis are slowly recovering from the trauma of war.
Mohammed M'Sayr, an artist, has been paiting scenes from Iraq's history onto the concrete barriers that shield Baghdad's roads from bombs. "I've transformed them into something beautiful," he says, "to help people feel happy."
But people understandably remains furious about some things: crippling unemployment; public services like garbage collection that don't exist; and power. Incredibly, the average Baghdad family still only gets six hours of electricity a day.
Many Iraqis think corruption is partly to blame, just one of the things they'll be able to vote on this Sunday.
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