Could you imagin 7,000 in the U.S.?
People here were saying they were STILL undecided between Bush and Kerry the day before the election.
My heart goes out to those brave souls who go to vote.
In Iraq they're doing it Israeli style (don't tell anyone.)
You vote for the party, not the candidate. The parties then have "lists" of people who get proportional representation.
For instance, if the Kurdish Alliance gets 10% of the vote, then the first 20 people on the list become representative, the rest of the 200 or so people on the list go home. That's why you have 7,000 candidates. Each list goes into it thinking they may get 100% of the vote so they put up 280 candidates.
In Iraq, no one party will probably get more than 50 or 60 seats so they'll be forced to form coalitions.