BAGHDAD, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Imad Hassan, a 48-year-old Iraqi blacksmith shop owner in the city of Baquba received many orders to make poles that would lift huge banners from dozens of candidates running for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Imad Hassan, a 48-year-old blacksmith shop owner in the city of Baquba, the capital of Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, received many orders to make poles that would lift huge banners from dozens of candidates running for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
"I have increased the work hours to meet the increasing orders by the candidates of Baquba and neighboring areas," Hassan told Xinhua.
"Some candidates are very rich and are paying immediately for their metal poles and boards on which they will later stick their posters," said Hassan while smiling with excitement.
The election of the Iraqi parliament is scheduled for May 12, the first election in the country since Iraq declared victory in the fight against the extremist Islamic State (IS) militant group.
The election campaign will officially kick off on April 14, where 6,986 candidates, including 2,014 female ones, are expected to compete for the 329 parliamentary seats to form a new government which will rule Iraq for the next four years.
For many blacksmiths and printing houses, the parliamentary elections are golden opportunities they must seize to increase their income.
In Iraq's central province of Salahudin, the blacksmiths purchased large quantities of different materials, including metals and equipment, during the past few weeks.
They also prepared some fuel for the generators in order not to lose precious work hours during the election season.
"I am well-prepared to do all the required orders of the candidates," said Kamal Khalaf, the owner of the largest blacksmith shop in the town of Alam, some 15 km northeast of Salahudin's provincial capital Tikrit.
Khalaf said he has prepared several models of metal frames for the candidates to choose from to hang their posters and photographs on.
"Some frames can be hung on electric poles and others can be fixed on the ground and on facades of buildings," said Khalaf, who has already been entrusted by some candidates to work on their campaign boards and banners.
In Baghdad, Kadhim Abdul-Amir, the owner of a blacksmith shop in the east of the Iraqi capital, told Xinhua that many candidates have asked him to get poles and metal boards ready before the launch of the campaign on April 14.
"I have been doing a brisk job recently and I was obliged to hire three more workers to meet the demand of the candidates," he said.
Mahmoud Abdul-Sattar, a blacksmith in western Baghdad, told Xinhua that he used to suffer from lack of demand but the elections campaign gave him a push in his work.
"Usually the work is not good, and I could hardly feed my family, but during the past two weeks, my work has revived as many candidates are looking for blacksmiths to work for their campaign," Sattar said.
Jawad Ismail, an iron wholesaler in Baghdad said he started his preparations for the campaign several months ago, just after the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) set the date for the elections.
"The demand on iron has incredibly increased during the past month, especially the kind that is used for frames for posters," Ismail said.
"Almost every day, I supply iron to many Iraqi provinces in central and southern Iraq, especially the provinces that have more candidates such as Nineveh in the north and Basra in the south," he added.
On the other side, the poor living in slums and squatter settlements across Iraq are expecting to use the iron bars and metal frames deserted after the elections to fix their shelters.
"Many of us built our places with things that were left after the previous elections. We can use metal, wood and nylon pieces to fix our houses," said Abu Ali, 55, who is living at a slum in Sadr City neighborhood in eastern Baghdad.
