Скачать или смотреть Polling stations being prepared on eve of election

(14 Dec 2005) SHOTLIST

Central Baghdad
1. Wide top shot of al Tahreer Square
2. Mid top shot of al Tahreer Square

Karada neighbourhood, Baghdad
3. Exterior of polling station with police on patrol behind concrete barriers
4. Various of Iraqi National Guards on patrol near barriers
5. Interior of polling station, corridor to room for voting
6. Various of employee from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) preparing papers inside polling station
7. Various of IEC employees preparing room
8. Mid shot of two ballot booths in place
9. Various of ballot booths

Sadr City, Baghdad
10. Various exteriors of polling station in Sadr City with policemen on patrol in front of building
11. Interior of polling station, corridor decorated with ribbons
12. Various of ballot booths, ballots boxes and posters on the wall inside

STORYLINE

Election campaigning came to a halt across Iraq on Wednesday to give the country's 15 (m) million voters an opportunity to reflect before deciding who will govern their country for the next four years.

One day before Thursday's election, work was under way in the country's 33,000 polling stations to prepare for the ballot.

Iraq's election commission said it had registered 6,655 candidates running on 996 lists and had certified 307 political groups - either in the form of single candidates or parties - and 19 coalitions.

Baghdad is Iraq's biggest electoral district with 2,161 candidates running for 59 of the 275 seats in Iraq's parliament, according to the commission's executive director, Adel Ali al-Lami.

In one polling station in Baghdad's Karada neighbourhood, staff could be seen preparing the facility and organising lists of voters' names.

In Baghdad's Sadr City, policemen patrolled another polling station, with facilities to vote already prepared inside.

Streets in Baghdad were eerily quiet, with police strictly enforcing a traffic ban.

Only the noise from an occasional police siren, sporadic gunfire or US helicopters could be heard.

Iraqi borders and airports have also been closed and the night time curfew has been extended.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Sunni clerics issued a religious decree instructing their followers to vote on Thursday, boosting US hopes that the election will encourage more members of the disaffected minority to abandon the insurgency.

Washington hopes a large turnout among Sunni Arabs will produce a government that can win the trust of the minority community that's the backbone of the insurgency.

That would, in turn, allow the United States and its coalition partners to start withdrawing their troops next year.

Iraqis living outside the country began voting on Tuesday in the United States and 14 other countries.

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