Picture from La'Onf

Photo:

College of Education for Girls in Najaf on October 14th. (Photo courtesy La'Onf)

Najaf, October 14: The Najaf branch of La'Onf at the College of Education for Girls. Organizers hung the La'Onf banner and pasted posters on billboards. The La'Onf table was surrounded by students who asked about the organization. The group talked with the students about elections. Around 250 students gathered around the table. The group presented special materials on La'Onf and its goal of the nonviolence campaign to the Dean of the Education College and to staff and professors and heads of departments and didn't face any problem or opposition. Iraqi media was there. Events were also held at Najaf's schools of management, economics and engineering

This was just one of many events that La'Onf planned this past month. Here is a bit from an article from 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows:

LaOnf has called for:

* the elections to consist of an open list of individual candidates rather than having political parties as the only voting options, as was the case in the last election.

* polls to be guarded by Iraqi police, with the Iraqi Army as back-up, to maintain neutrality at the polls and allow everyone to vote regardless of sectarian, ethnic, or religious affiliation or gender.

* Iraqi militias and US troops to be kept away from polling places, to ensure fair and open elections.

LaOnf is also calling on the candidates to explain fully their programs for rebuilding the country's infrastructure, their plans for creating employment, as well as explaining their positions on the rights of women, the right of free speech, and how a culture of nonviolence can be promoted in Iraq.

In all governorates of Iraq, LaOnf has organized myriad activities: conferences and workshops, youth soccer games, radio and television programs, community meetings, some aimed specifically at youth and women, cultural festivals, distribution of posters and literature, art exhibitions, visits to religious figures, meetings with provincial governors and other officials, and visits with party officials and clan chiefs. Others are symbolic: in Kirkuk and Erbil, community participants released flocks of doves to signal their hopes for a peaceful future.