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Poor selling their votes for cash
The March 7 election may be a critical event in the contest to decide Iraq's future, but for some of the nation's poor, the right to vote does not mean having a say in who leads the country; it means having something to sell to make desperately needed cash.
With intensive campaigning now under way in what is shaping up to be a highly competitive ballot, votes have become a precious commodity, a fact not lost on many ordinary people who care little for politics but who struggle to make ends meet.
"Elections are a beautiful opportunity to get some money," Ahmad Salam said. "There are lots of people willing to sell their votes, and lots of people who want to buy them."
A mechanic by trade working in the impoverished Sadr City slum of north-eastern Baghdad, Salam has taken on the role of an election agent with a difference. He collects votes and then offers them en mass to whichever party is prepared to make the highest bid, taking a commission for his efforts.
"I have 100 people who have given me their vote to sell," he said outside the small garage where he is employed as a casual worker, earning a few dollars a day. "None of them cares who wins, none of them thinks it makes any difference, so they give me their vote, and I sell it."