It's not a question of if Iraqi people will re-elect Hussein

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The victory rallies are set and the tributes are ready. In an Iraqi yes-or-no vote on re-electing Saddam Hussein, the only cliffhanger in Tuesday's vote is whether the two-decade Iraqi leader will beat his last showing: 99.96 percent.

In Iraq, where many believe war with the United States is coming, that 1995 result for Saddam is now seen as somewhat tepid.

"This time, 100 percent!" worker Mayad Aiwan cried Sunday. "Because the Iraqi people love our leader!"

But as the ballot on which only Saddam's name appears suggests, it's not as if Saddam's people have much choice.

Shopkeepers hung banners on dreary storefronts Sunday, the new white sheets and cheerful red, green, blue and yellow lettering the only bright spots in a smoggy city choked by a decade of international isolation and sanctions on Saddam's regime.

"Yes, yes, yes Saddam!" "Iraq will win, God save our leader!" the banners in Arabic proclaimed, in slogans repeated with modest variations on posters nationwide.

'No, no, no USA!'

"Yes, yes, yes Saddam! No, no, no USA!" declared one such sheet, in English, on a school wall on the road to a complex that Washington has targeted as an alleged nuclear site. Scarved girls in braids played in the schoolyard.

In what human rights' groups universally call one of the world's most oppressive regimes, it is difficult to determine how ordinary Iraqis truly view the ballot.

On Baghdad's streets, people voiced support for Saddam similar to that found on the slogans.

All were questioned Sunday in the presence of a government-appointed minder, who is officially required of all foreign press.

"This vote will be the challenge of the Iraqi people to the United States," engineer Achmed Abdul Sahib said outside a city bus station. "More than last time. More than 99 percent."

But there was only silence after an awkward question was posed in the presence of the minder: Why the 0.04 percent "no" vote in the last Saddam election?

Curious soldiers stopped and clustered behind the minder, who froze in hesitation at the question and sagged in relief after being told he didn't have to answer.

Iraq's media estimate more than 11 million Iraqis will cast ballots on Saddam's election.

Most polling places are schools. Iraqis ages 18 and above will enter with their voter cards, and be handed the ballot with the "Yes" or "No" boxes.

Iraq already has announced celebrations "like a wedding night" for Saddam's election victory. Many Iraqis -- who say they see the United States picking a fight with their country at a time when life here was getting a little better -- say their vote for Saddam will be a vote of defiance to the United States.

Amid U.N. sanctions, and renewed threat of war, "Our message for outside is we love Saddam Hussein," housewife Tatisar Mahdi said as she leaned over a market stall, with a toddler staring from the folds of her black robe.

President Bush's administration cites reports that Saddam's government manipulates food rations in order to ensure shows of support -- as with Iraqi families sending their schoolboys to military training in a program called Saddam's Cubs. The rations are allegedly cut if families refuse.

The rations are provided under measures meant to ease U.N. sanctions on Iraq. The sanctions were imposed after the Gulf War to compel Iraq to eradicate what the United Nations said were its programs for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Many Iraqis speak of praying that another war can be averted.

Pro-Iraq, anti-U.S. rallies, like campaign rallies, are few, whether staged or spontaneous. Baghdad's spirit seems watchful.

At a suburban school Sunday, Iraqi authorities paid tribute to victims of one of Iraq's last conflicts -- 34 pupils killed Oct. 13, 1987, by an Iranian missile in the Iran-Iraq war.

For the foreign news cameras, the commemoration quickly hit its mark as a campaign rally.

Under camera lights and flashes, a kerchiefed matron struggled to whip lisping, hip-high children into a frenzy of electioneering.

"Yes, yes, yes, President Saddam!" the woman coached, stooping to wag her finger in the children's face, then rearing up to wave a fist in the air and beam.

"Yes, yes, yes, President Saddam," the pig-tailed girls, and boys in stubby blue ties recited back.

It rhymed in Arabic -- Na'am, na'am, na'am, lil qaid Saddam.