With parliamentary elections less than three weeks away, the Iraqis are still divided on the date of the vote.
The government led by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is trying to push ahead the elections as scheduled, while an increasing number of people call for a delay, citing security concerns.
Iron-fisted Allawi, a secular Shiite Muslim and a candidate himself, showed no sign to budge in front of all the appeals, mainly from the Sunni parties, to reconsider the timing of the polls.
Admitting on Tuesday that some parts of Iraq would not be able to take part in the elections in three weeks' time as deadly strikes kill about a dozen people every day across the country, Allawi stopped short of mentioning any postponement.
Whereas in the Sunni camp, things are not going in the direction as Allawi anticipates.
Sunni religious and tribal leaders have warned against marginalizing any of the Iraqi sects and dividing the Iraqis if the elections are to be held in such an improper atmosphere.
Adnan al-Pachachi, head of the Independent Democrats Gathering, has insisted on postponing the elections.
"The attack on Fallujah made millions of Iraqis refrain from joining the political process," said Pachachi, a secular Sunni.
"This will leave certain groups in Iraq unrepresented or at least ill-represented," he added.
"Results from incomprehensive elections would be questioned from the legal point of view," he said. "The legitimacy and credibility of the permanent constitution to be drafted by the elected national assembly would also be doubted."
The Jan. 30 polls will elect a 275-seat national assembly which will appoint a government and work out a permanent constitution for the Iraqis to approve in a referendum.
Offering a remedy, Pachachi said "more time is needed to hold serious dialogue among all the parties bent on boycotting or calling for a delay of the elections so that we can expect a high turnout of voters."
"Their demands, problems, complains and concerns should be addressed," the veteran Iraqi politician added. "For those forced to raise the flags of resistance, they can be brought back into line and join the dialogue to improve the deteriorating security situation."
However, he said extremists, who consider democracy another type of infidelity, should not be on the list of negotiators.
The Sunnis have claimed that the Jan. 30 vote is impossible in large parts of Baghdad and hot spots such as Mosul and the central Anbar province.
A Sunni tribal group announced Wednesday it would withdraw from the elections if the vote is not postponed so as to allow thorough preparations for the ballot in insecure places.
The 216-member National Front For Iraq's Unity, a group of several Sunni Muslim tribes and political parties, followed suit of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni political party in Iraq, which announced last month its decision to pull out of the race.
"The government is incapable of protecting voters and candidates, which has become the main reason why parties still do not release the names of their candidates," said Nasir al- Chadirchi, head of the Sunni Patriotic Democratic Party.
"This is disastrous for the voters to get insufficient knowledge about whom they will cast votes for," he lamented.
"The issue is not about the withdrawal of some Sunni parties, but it boils down to the large number of potential voters in the Sunni regions," said Chadirchi, a former member of the defunct interim Governing Council.
Making the matter more complicated, some reports quoting well- informed sources said Great Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite cleric in Iraq, might call for a postponement so as to preserve the unity of the country and its people.
"If Sistani joins the calls for postponing the elections, it is most likely that the elections will be postponed, and I believe that the elections should be held in a healthy, secure atmosphere," Mahmoud Abdullah, a political science professor in Baghdad University, told Xinhua.
"I agree with the view that postponing the elections will be a temporary victory for the resistance, but it will also be a permanent victory for all the Iraqis, whose unity is the most important among all," he said.