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Iraqis go to polls today

BAGHDAD: Iraqis go to the polls on Monday to elect a new parliament to monitor the country's one-party government, which will be unchanged.

According to Iraqi media reports some 8.5 million Iraqis are expected to cast their votes in the election.

The electors, all Iraqis above the age 18, will choose 220 parliamentarians out of 522 candidates to fill the 250-seat parliament. The remaining 30 seats are reserved for the rebel-held Kurdish provinces of Dahouk, Arbil and Sulaimaniya, where no elections will be held.

In the last parliamentary elections in 1996 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who is also the country's prime minister, appointed 30 deputies to fill seats for the three Kurdish provinces, which have been outside Baghdad's control since shortly after the 1991 Gulf War.

It is not known yet how many of election candidates are from the ruling Baath party members and how many are independents. In the last elections around 60 of 538 independent candidates won seats, while all 160 Baathist candidates got through.

Members, Baathist or otherwise, are required by law to support the principles of the July 1968 revolution which brought the Baath party to power.

A 1995 law gave parliament new powers, including the right to summon senior party and government officials for questioning. The deputies can also call in the prime minister and hold him accountable for failures of both domestic and foreign policies.

Saddam's eldest son Uday is standing for parliament for the first time. Other prominent candidates, 25 of whom are women, include the speaker of the current parliament, Saadoun Hammadi, and former culture and information minister Hamed Yossef Hummadi.

Iraqi media have been publishing the biographies and pictures of the candidates for the past two weeks. Justice Minister Shabib al-Maliki said all candidates had equal access to state-run media during campaigning for the election.-Reuters