Iraqi blogs cover the elections

Baghdad, the city of bullets and bombs, was almost eerily quiet on the eve of the elections. Several Iraqi bloggers are writing about the elections and one of the best-established blogs, Iraq the Model, says it will have eight correspondents in the field to report on what's happening in Erbil, Kirkuk, Mosul, Babil, Najaf, Kerbala, Samawa, Basra and Baghdad.

Here, Mohammed, one of three brothers, all medical professionals, who maintain the blog, gives a taste of what Iraqis are feeling:

With joy, worry, fear and hope I await tomorrow. Our hearts beat fast hurrying the clock to bring us faster to the other shore.

Tomorrow it's going to be us who decide and I can feel the greatness of the responsibility because the result will draw the shape of our future and will determine how long it will take till we can announce victory in this war; our war against the past, against the past's illusions and the past's mistakes; with our hands we can make this war last shorter… with our own choices.

Iraq the Model's blog coverage also will be posted at the conservative U.S. blog site Pajamas Media.

Here are some snips from other Iraq blogs. First, Alaa, at The Mesopotamian.

The historical elections are upon us. And again the Iraqis are showing their incredible courage. Candidates are being assassinated on daily basis. Even poster workers are being shot and targeted by the dozens. Car bombings and suicide bombings have become almost routine occurrences. Death and intimidation all over the place; but does that stop anybody? Not in the least.

The anonymous Iraq Pundit who writes at the blog of the same name, says:

We're very hopeful that things will improve if the divisive religious leaders can be defeated this election. ...I don't understand what's up with people who see Iraq as a hopeless case.

Truth Teller at A Citizen of Mosul writes,

The election of the new parliament will [be held] next Thursday. The situation in the city of Mosul is very stressful. The US convoys wandering through out the city day and night. The police cars full of policemen holding gun aiming at the pedestrians and firing their guns at any car which fail to stop or approaching the convoy.

From the other side there were explosions every where, masked gunmen attacking the US soldiers and the Iraqi police. The roads are blocked by either a concrete blocks or barbed wires making the moving in the city streets very difficult and dangerous.