Despite the miserable employment situation in the country, some in Iraq are still enjoying their jobs. Kadhim al-Rakib is one of them. For the last three weeks, he has been traveling through Iraq explaining tohis fellow citizens what, exactly, the election on Jan. 30 is all about.

He has already enlightened people in Baghdad and Hilla and, once he is finished in Basra in southern Iraq, it will be time for him to head to the Kurdish town of Mosul in the north. His audiences are mostly journalists from local newspapers -- politically aware folks -- who now have two weeks left to help their readers find their way through the nine different voting blocks, 66 parties and, in total, more than 7,200 individual candidates.

It's not easy, but it does sometimes provides a few laughs. "We voted twice under Saddam," says al-Rakib, "and both times it was touching how much attention the state paid to the voters. Saddam let them off work on election day; he brought them to the ballot boxes, handed out chocolate bars and staged performances of beautiful dancers. And in the end, Saddam even saved them the trouble of having to choose among a variety of candidates."

Al-Rakib also likes to tell the joke about the Iraqi safe-crackers who, after the fall of Baghdad, broke into the central bank. Though they found no money in the main safe, they did find a couple of official papers: The official election results from 2009.

"Iraqis are not used to voting and many feel overwhelmed," says al-Rakib. One journalist even seriously asked him if it wouldn't be better if someone came from Baghdad and showed voters where to put their marks. "One has to really apply oneself to explain, in these conditions, what an electoral list is, that we aren't voting for a president or why the mandate of the national assembly is only valid until the next election in December."

Name, Number and Symbol

The list that will face Iraqis in the voting booths on Jan. 30 is confusing -- and long. Printed in Switzerland, there will be 100 different electoral lists and each will be identified with a name, a number and a symbol. So as not to show preferential treatment for any group, the order the groups will appear on the ballot was determined in a December lottery-like drawing. It's also difficult to differentiate between the names of the different groups -- most preferring patriotic sounding names -- and the multitude of "alliances," "unions," and "coalitions" are almost impossible to keep apart. The symbols are thus vitally important in helping voters recognize the party they wish to choose.

The biggest electoral alliance -- and likely the one with the best chances for success -- is primarily made up of Shiite parties and has decided on a burning candle as its logo. The alliance is made up of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the Islamic Dawa Party and the Iraqi National Congress (INC). No. 1 on the group's list is the head of SCIRI, Abdulasis al-Hakim, and following him is the Dawa boss and current interim vice president Ibrahim Jafari. Further down the list is INC head Ahmad Chalabi, who spent years in the exile in the United States and was influential in convincing the Americans that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In the summer of 2004, he became persona non grata in Washington after he was accused to have told the Iranians that Washington had broken their communication codes.

Judging by the sheer number of posters the group has plastered across the country, it is virtually a sure thing that al-Hakim, Jafari and Chalabi will all end up in the new, 275-member national assembly. Their logo has practically no competition in towns in southern Iraq and their slogan, "Vote the Candle! Vote List 169!" adorns street corners from Baghdad to Basra. In addition, the group also has the endorsement of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of the Shiites. Almost nobody doubts that the alliance will be successful in the upcoming elections.

The second largest electoral alliance is the Iraqi List, under the leadership of interim Iraqi premier Ayad Allawi. For its logo, the List has chosen a more abstract symbol showing the geographic outline of the country on a blue background. The list includes Allawi's Iraqi National Accord (INA), the Iraqi Democracy Movement under interim National Security Minister Kassim Daoud, and an assortment of parties created by other ministers and by diverse clan and religious leaders. One of those is the moderate sheik Hussein al-Sadr, a relative of the radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who has elected not to run in the elections.

The media candidate

Early on, Allawi's alliance was virtually written off because the interim prime minister is seen by many as a Washington puppet and as partially responsible for a number of controversial policies, such as the decision to storm the rebel-held city of Falluja. But his chances are improving; he has become an excellent media manager and often uses satellite television for publicity. The Dubai station al-Arabia often broadcasts fawning portraits of Allawi and shows almost daily interviews with the candidate. Iraqi List campaign advertisements complete the package.

The third large block in the campaign is simply called "The Iraqis" and is led by Iraqi interim president Ghazi al-Yawer. His chosen symbol is especially catchy and is seen as the best marketing gag of the campaign: the Okal -- the doubled black headband that Arab men use to affix their turbans. The symbol appeals directly to al-Yawer's likely voters: traditional clan leaders who will hopefully encourage their Sunni followers to go to the polls.

Until recently, Iraqi leaders had hoped to be able to delay the election date until the situation in Iraq had become more stabilized. That idea, however, has since been discarded and was a hard sell anyway in the Kurdish north and the relatively peaceful south. In Basra, says al-Rakib, the voters can hardly wait to cast their ballots and most, he says, are expecting a landslide victory for the Shiite "candle list" in the south and the "Kurdish Alliance" -- with their symbol of a sun and crescent moon -- in the north. Because Iraq will not be divided up into electoral districts, a Shiite-Kurd coalition is expected; the Sunnis, whose parties are either boycotting the election or are not expected to do well, will have to be satisfied with the few seats given them under the quota system introduced for the election.

But in contrast to the two Saddam referenda in 1995 and 2002, al-Rakib believes that an election-day surprise is still possible. Allawi's intense campaigning, for example, could end up attracting a number of secular Shiites to his cause.

And even outside of the larger electoral blocks, there are parties that have an outside shot. A number of lampposts in Basra, for example, bear the motto that only a few older Iraqis could immediately understand: The communist party is campaigning with the image and old Iraq flag of General Abdulkarim Kassim, who replaced the last Iraqi king, King Faisal, in 1958. Monarchists have hung up posters depicting Sharif Ali al-Hashemi, the nephew of King Faisal and current pretender to the throne.