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Iraqis Go to the Polls

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Tomorrow is Election Day — again — in Iraq, and the voting has never been more important, for Iraqis or for Americans. Six and a half thousand candidates are running for the 275 seats in the country's first, full, post-invasion parliament.

For the first time, the embittered Sunni minority that ruled under Saddam Hussein is buying in, heading for the polls, even as many continue to support the blazing insurgency.

Iraq is awash in campaign posters and radio ads and televised debates and hard-won dreams. It is also swimming in blood and menace and division. If, if the vote stitches in more support for a shared future, the needle moves toward hope. But it's a big if.

Hear about the upcoming elections in Iraq.

Guests:

George Packer, author of "The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq" and a staff writer for the New Yorker Magazine

Borzou Daragahi, Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times

Ali Fadhil, Independent Iraqi filmmaker and reporter for the Guardian Newspaper

Honein Kaddo, a candidate in tomorrow's elections a member of the Shabak Democratic Party, and Chairman of the Iraq Minorities Council

Michael Ware, Time Magazine's Bureau Chief in Iraq

Abdussalaam al-Medeni, election monitor.

This program aired on December 14, 2005.

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