A landmark general election will be held in Iraq on Jan. 30 to elect a national assembly, which will then form a new government and draft a new permanent constitution. The following are facts about the election.

PURPOSE
Iraqi voters will elect 275 members of a national assembly, which will oversee a new government to take over from the interim government the US occupation authority appointed in June 2004.
Another task of the new assembly will be to draft a new constitution. If the constitution is approved in a referendum, Iraq will hold a new election to produce a formal assembly and a government by the end of 2005.
Voters will also choose members of 18 provincial assemblies and the autonomous Kurdish parliament in northern Iraq.

ELECTION ORGANIZER
An 8-member Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, which was formed last year, will oversee the election under the electoral law.
The commission is run by Iraqi citizens, with the involvement of an international electoral expert chosen by the United Nations. The rules and timing are prescribed by the Transitional Administrative Law and confirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 1546.

MAJOR PARTIES AND POLITICAL ALLIANCES
All parities, organizations and individuals should obtain the approval of the electoral commission before running for the election.
According to the commission, a total of 111 candidate lists, presented by nine coalitions, 75 parties, 27 individuals, have been approved to compete.
Altogether, 7,471 candidates, including interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, will run for the seats in the National Assembly, representing themselves or their parties and coalitions.
Most of the major parties and political alliances competing in the election are formed by Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds in northern Iraq.
The United Iraq Alliance is drawn largely from the Shiite political establishment and includes Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the cleric who heads Iraq's largest political group, the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The Iraq List is led by Allawi and includes a mix of Shiites and Sunnis, but Shiites account for the majority of top names.
The Kurdish Alliance List consists of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and is expected to get bulk of the Kurdish vote in northern Iraq.
The People's Union has 275 candidates drawn from secular Iraqis.

VOTERS AND VOTING
According to the electoral law, all Iraqis aged 18 years or older on Jan. 1, 2005 can vote. More than 14 million Iraqis are eligible.
Iraqis will report to 5,220 designated voting centers in the 18 provinces of the country.
About 1.2 million overseas voters will be allowed to have absentee voting in 14 countries.
Most voters will have two electoral sheets: one for the national assembly and the other for provincial balloting.

SECURITY
Baghdad's international airport will be closed on Jan. 29 for two days, while the country's land borders are to be shut from Jan. 29 for three days.
A two-day public holiday has been declared from Jan. 29, during which an 8:00 p.m.-- 6:00 a.m. curfew will be imposed in most cities.
Private vehicles are completely banned on the polling day and some public transport will be laid on to get voters to the ballot boxes. And some voters are expected to manage to the polling stations on foot.
There will be at least 100,000 policemen and soldiers deployed across Iraq on the election day, with the US forces being called in for emergencies. Polling centers will be guarded by two rings of police.