NYTimes:

BASRA, Iraq, Jan. 27 – A convoy of flag-bedecked sedans and pickup trucks, packed with cheering campaigners, nosed its way through the this southern Iraqi city on Thursday, accompanied by a pop-music-style refrain, a paean to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country’s most important Shiite cleric.
Campaigning in much of Iraq is a furtive, life-threatening affair, best done on the quiet, if at all. Not so in the south, where the party identified with Ayatollah Sistani, symbolized by a burning candle and called the United Iraqi Coalition List, is one of dozens stumping openly and sometimes raucously.

Compare to their last “election” in 2002. (Sistani pop songs beat “I Will Always Love You.”)