Baghdad: Iraqi election officials on Saturday ordered transport bans and night-time curfews to boost security on the eve of the country's January 31 provincial polls and on election day.
Iraq's borders will be sealed off as well as all civilian airports and provincial borders from 10 pm (1900 GMT) on Friday until 5 am (0200 GMT) on February 1, the election commission announced.
Curfews are to be imposed next Friday and Saturday nights from 10 pm until 5 am, and civilians banned from carrying guns, even with a permit.
Only vehicles with official authorisation will be allowed to take to the streets of Baghdad and provincial capitals on Saturday. "In no instance will any car be authorised to approach a polling station," it said.
Polling day and Sunday will be declared public holidays. Some 15 million Iraqis are being called to the polls to elect officials for 440 seats.
Meanwhile, when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki came to Basra to whip up votes for an upcoming election, it felt more like a giant cry for help from the southern city's desperate poor than a campaign rally.
About half the 2,000-strong crowd, some on crutches or on wheelchairs, surged against a human barrier of security men in a bid to make their pleas for assistance heard as Al Maliki concluded a speech, praising security gains and promising development.
"She's blind and has a mental problem, I went to Baghdad and got no help, we have nowhere left to turn to," said Abu Zahra, thrusting his daughter forward.
Al Maliki did not address the pleas personally, but sent his security guards to collect the files with letters begging for help, some with gory photos of injuries.
Although it sits atop most of Iraq's vast oil wealth, the once elegant city of Basra is largely decrepit now, strewn with waste and spotted with puddles of sewage. The wave of violence that descended on Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, prevented investment and recovery from decades of war and economic sanctions. In Basra, armed gangs seized the streets after the fall of Saddam Husssain, fighting over control of the city and its oil.
It is now relatively calm after Al Maliki ordered a military crackdown last year that drove the fighters off the streets.
