Sermons and bombs greet Iraqi voters: Fear and elation are jostling on Baghdad's empty streets as election day looms. Steve Negus reports

Saturday, Jan 29, 2005

At dawn on the day before a night-time curfew closed their city, the people of Baghdad went early to buy petrol and bread in readiness for the 72 uncertain hours before Iraq's first post-war elections.

Across Iraq, 15m people have gained the right to help choose a 275-member national assembly and 18 provincial councils - and their country is choked by exhilaration and apprehension.

Baghdadis who had spent weeks wondering where their neighbourhood polling stations would be finally found out - from the coils of barbed wire that had been spread overnight for 200 yards in every direction.

People in the northern outskirts gazed admiringly at the second-hand American vehicles of the new Iraqi Army's First Armoured Unit, making its debut on Baghdad's streets.

In the nearby Shia slums, youths from the radical Mahdi Army militia muttered angrily about the round of arrests staged by US troops the day before, but promised their elders they would not retaliate, at least until after tomorrow's vote.

At noon prayers in the Buratha mosque, a gathering-place for mainstream Shia parties, preacher and candidate Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer issued a rousing call to the faithful to go to the polls in spite of the risks.

"We will embalm ourselves for burial and take our coffins with us to the polling stations," Mr Sagheer proclaimed to the crowd.

Across the city, a representative of Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia prelate whose movement has been divided over whether to take part, gave a long sermon to the thousands gathered in the street, declaring that any government elected tomorrow would not be legitimate.

"Do not give your support to that which is only partly just ... Be patient and wait for the reign of the Prophet's Family," said the preacher, appealing to the Sadrists' messianic vision. A gathering of local Sadrists standing in the elections later handed out campaign leaflets, insisting the sermon should not be taken to mean that loyal Shia should refrain from voting.

The Friday sermon at the west Baghdad headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a conservative Sunni movement that backs a boycott, made no mention of the poll.

As the afternoon wore on, explosions echoed across the city as insurgents stepped up their attacks aimed at wrecking the vote. As evening began to fall drivers rushed to get home before the dusk descended and with it the curfew. Iraqi National Guardsmen beckoned them over at one west Baghdad crossroads.

Blithely defying the rules against soldiers campaigning, they handed out election leaflets bearing the face of Hazem al-Shaalan, defence minister.

As night fell, televisions in thousands of households across the city screened get-out-the-vote advertisements. They show a father trying to convince his son it would shameful not to take part in the historic elections.

Like so many things in Iraq, the commercial ends with their arguments yet to be resolved.

Additional reporting by Dhiya Rasan and Awadh al-Taee Reports and analysis, Pages 6 and 7 Editorial Comment, Page 10 Latest news, www.ft.com/iraq

By AWADH AL-TAEE, STEVE NEGUS and DHIYA RASAN