Iraqis will vote on Saturday in an election that will test the war-battered country's fragile security gains and perhaps ease lingering sectarian resentment still fuelling violence in some areas.
Iraq's first election since 2005 will pick local councils in 14 of its 18 provinces and show whether Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining peace as US troops begin to pull back, almost six years after the invasion to unseat Saddam Hussein.
The last election took place amid an al Qaeda-inspired Sunni insurgency and was followed by a wave of worsening sectarian slaughter between Iraq's once dominant Sunni Arabs and its majority Shi'ite Muslims.
A relatively peaceful and credible election will show Iraq has moved on from solving disputes with bullets, and will set the stage for a parliamentary vote late in the year, in which prime minister Nuri al-Maliki will seek to renew his mandate.
Mr Maliki is challenging dominant Shi'ite rivals in the south, tribal sheikhs who fought al Qaeda are taking on Sunni religious parties in the west, and Arabs in the north who boycotted the last vote are looking to win a share of power from Kurds there.
"The stakes are considerable," the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, wrote in a report.
"Whereas the January 2005 elections helped put Iraq on the path to all-out civil war, these polls could represent another, far more peaceful turning point."
Just under 15 million of Iraq's 28 million people have registered to vote for provincial councils that select powerful regional governors. Three Kurdish provinces are to vote separately and the election in oil-rich, disputed Kirkuk has been put off because no one could agree on election rules.
Reuters