BAGHDAD, December 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Candidate campaigns for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iraq have brought in a rare economic boom as ballot box hopefuls fritter away so much money on electioneering.

In a war-torn country ravaged by towering unemployment and a daily diet of bloodshed, economic miracles -- however transitory -- are a welcome break, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Available walls, concrete blast slabs, shopfronts and apartment buildings have been wallpapered with posters and billboards as candidates compete to capture the electorate's imagination.

"Everyone is participating in these elections, even the Sunnis who boycotted the last vote," said an optimistic Khalil Ibrahim Al-Badri, director of the Al-Nile advertising company in Baghdad.

"Twenty specialized Iraqi printers are working day and night to meet demand from the different coalition lists," Badri explained, lauding a boom that he says has employed many previously jobless Iraqis.

A recent government and UN report put unemployment at 27 percent, but many experts believe the actual number is closer to 50 percent, in a country that was once one of the most prosperous and progressive in the Middle East.

More than 220 separate entities -- be they coalitions, individuals or parties -- are competing in the crunch December 15 election when 15 million voters are eligible to elect a four-year, 275-member national assembly.

Cloth makers have had their share of the handsome profit as well.

“White cloth is much sought-after by campaign managers,” Osama Al-Marsoumi, a cloth merchant, told the London-based Al-Quds press news agency.

“We are running out of cloth and can’t cope with the increasing orders.”

Qusay Rashid Saheb, owner of Al-Assala printers, says that candidates have lavished huge amounts of money on their election hopes.

Sunni candidate Saleh Al-Motlaq apparently ordered 1,000 billboards, each two by three meters (six by nine feet), coughing up an estimated $300,000, according to AFP.

But Motlaq -- standing for the Sunnis' Iraqi Concord Front list -- is small fry compared to political heavyweights such as former prime minister Iyad Allawi, campaigning on a secular Shiite ticket.

Allawi, who has also bankrolled a lavish television campaign, and ex-defense minister Hazem Al-Shaalan had their print advertising work done in Jordan, because Iraqi companies could not meet their demands.

Blacksmiths were also given a great boost in the run-up to the elections.

“I spend the day fixing and installing metal board for rich candidates, and thank God it pays off at the end of the day,” energetic Ahmad Goma told Al-Quds press.

Walls aside, the front and back pages of newspapers are also covered with gaudy color pictures and advertisements.

In the Sunni newspaper Mashriq, the Iraqi Concord Front features the pictures of three candidates superimposed over a picture of the rising sun breaking through clouds, with the slogan: "Clean Hands".

Despite the big bucks, candidates are sticking to a surprisingly uniform format tacitly agreed between the different movements participating in the vote: religious, Sunni, Shiite, Kurd, communist and secular, according to AFP.

Most have the Iraqi flag in the background, foreground or margin. Equally prominent is the photograph of the candidate in question and the three-digit number of their list.

The different colors are the prerogative of the rival clans, says Maytham Al-Shummari, an advertising graphic designer.

"Blue is the color of Sunni parties, because it is neutral while the Shiite lists choose green, the symbol of Islam. The Kurds have adopted the colors of their flag, red, green and yellow, and the Christians violet," he said.

Slogans also vary and reflect the traditional policies of the various sectarian groups.