BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq on Sunday timetabled long-awaited provincial elections for January 31 as an opinion poll showed religious parties apparently losing support.
The elections, seen by Washington as a key benchmark for achieving national reconciliation, will take place "in one day in Baghdad and the other provinces," Qazim al-Abudi, administrative director of the Iraq High Electoral Committee, told AFP.
"The electoral campaign will start at the end of this month or at the beginning of next month and it will last for two months," he said.
According to a survey published by an Iraqi NGO, the Al-Amal Association, only 22.7 percent of 12,000 people polled in 11 provinces said they will vote for religious parties or blocks.
Voting for independent candidates is deemed a priority for 26.3 percent of the surveyed public of 11,000 Iraqis, while 23.7 percent said they will select democratic and secular blocks.
In the last provincial elections, in December 2005, religiously-affiliated parties won all the seats in the councils, with the exception of the Kurdish region and Kirkuk.
Washington has long said the poll is critical to consolidating Iraq's fledgling political process and reconciling its deeply divided ethnic groups following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled now executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
The vote, which promises races influenced by Iraq's complex ethnic and religious communities, will come after US President George W. Bush steps down on January 20 to be replaced by Democratic president-elect Barack Obama.
First scheduled for October 1, the polls were postponed when the national parliament struggled to pass an election law because of concerns over the disputed oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk.
The January ballot will be held in only 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces after the new law excluded Kirkuk and the three Kurdish provinces of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah.
Elections in the three Kurdish provinces will not be held until after March 2009 and the existing multi-communal council will continue to administer the province of Kirkuk.
The Al-Amal Association said 58 percent of people it questioned expect to take part in the January elections, while 19 percent do not. The rest were undecided.
Prospective voters said electricity water, food, employment and housing are the most important issues though only 37 percent believe the government is capable of responding to their needs, the survey showed.
There are 17.3 million registered voters this year compared with 14.2 million in the last election.
To date 401 political parties or independent candidates have registered for the ballot, with 440 seats up for grabs nationwide in the provincial councils.
The election regulations stipulate that candidates -- either independent or belonging to a party -- who receive the biggest number of votes will be declared winners.
Iraq's religious minorities will be competing for six council seats after the three-member presidency council on Saturday approved a controversial resolution guaranteeing them posts.
The number is half that recommended by the United Nations, a reduction that has provoked criticism in Christian quarters of Iraq.
Christians will receive one seat each on the councils in Baghdad, Nineveh and Basra. Yazidis and Shabaks minorities each receive one in Nineveh, while Sabeans have one in Baghdad.
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