Security agencies incapable of protecting candidates – Babel governor

BABEL / IraqiNews.com: The security agencies are incapable of protecting the numerous candidates, according to the Babel governor and operations chief on Saturday, urging candidates for local elections to be “cautious these days.” “Candidates in the province of Babel reached 1,452, a number that makes it impossible to provide personal protection. The candidates have to observe cautiousness in the movements in the next few days,” Salem al-Maslamawi told IraqiNews.com news agency. Maslamawi gave the statements on the sidelines of funerary ceremonies of Haytham al-Husseini, a candidate on the Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) list. On Friday (Jan. 16), a security source in Babel said that Husseini, running on the list of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the forthcoming local elections, was assassinated and four of his bodyguards wounded in an armed attack northeast of the city of al-Hilla. Hossam al-Bakri, the director of the Islamic Dawa Party office in Babel, told IraqiNews.com news agency that the office has “received death threats a week ago, but we did not take them seriously.” “Husseini, born in 1978, was the target of seven assassination attempts in which his two brothers, sister and father were killed in 2006. He was also detained by U.S. forces and remained in the occupation forces’ detention center for nearly two years,” Bakri added. Husseini’s Dawlat al-Qanoon list is composed of Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party, the Dawa Party – Iraq Organization, the Islamic Solidarity List, Feyli Kurds, the Islamic Union for Iraqi Turkmen and the Mustaqiloon (Independents) bloc. The provincial council elections are scheduled to be held on January 31 in Iraq’s 18 provinces save Kirkuk and the three autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk. According to the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) office in Babel, 387 out of the total number of candidates of 1,452 are women. The candidates are vying over 30 seats in the local council. Hilla, the capital city of Babel province, lies 100 km south of Baghdad. Babel received security responsibilities from the U.S. forces on October 23, 2008.   AmR (S)/SR 2