"Vote for the Iraqi list and Dr Iyad Allawi for a strong leadership and a secure homeland," says a woman's voice at the end of a 50-second television spot featuring the country's interim prime minister. In Iraq's budding experience with democracy, Allawi enjoys some of the advantages of the incumbent, even if he was appointed only for seven months to steer the country towards the January 30 vote. But on the streets of Baghdad and in the Shiite heartland in the centre and south, a turbaned white-bearded cleric looms large.
Grand Ayotollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of the country's majority Shiites, is not running for office but has emerged as the kingmaker after he blessed the United Iraqi Alliance, a grouping of political and religious parties, some of which advocate the creation of an Islamic state.
Outside a Baghdad mosque a large banner features a white crescent emanating from an abstract map of Iraq against a soft pink background with Sistani's figure in an upper corner and a ballot box below and the captions "Yes for the United Iraqi Alliance" and "Elections equal security and stability."
With the exception of a few Sunni Muslim-dominated areas of Baghdad, Sistani's posters are everywhere; on blast walls, bridges and tree trunks.
Iraqis will have the opportunity to vote for one of some 100 party and coalition lists competing for seats in a 275-member national assembly. Shiites are overwhelmingly for elections, while most Sunnis say they won't take part.
"I will do what the sayed (Sistani) ordered, but is there a way I can vote for the list and also cast another vote for a candidate," inquires Ali Abdul Hussein, 34. "I kind of like Allawi."
And just like everywhere in the world, the candidate that can afford to get his message across on prime time television reaps the rewards on polling day.
Allawi's charm campaign started in December right after the end of a major US-led assault against insurgents in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
First it was a show entitled "Meet the Official" on the government-owned Al-Iraqiya during which callers complained about everything from flooded sewage systems to the aggressive way US soldiers drive around Baghdad in their armoured vehicles. This was followed by a message to Iraqis on New Year's eve during which he told them 2005 would be "decisive".
This picked up momentum over the past week with advertisements in pro-Allawi papers and a spot aired on privately-owned Sharqiya in which Allawi introduces his credentials as a surgeon.
"When we graduate as doctors we take an oath to heal people and ease their suffering, and that's why we can't just stand and watch the injustice and tyranny that befell Iraq," he says as his image is alternated with footage of children, wailing women, Iraqi soldiers carrying the coffins of their slain comrades and the swearing-in ceremony of his interim government in June.
"Allawi is the star and Sistani wrote the script," jokes Azzam Saleh, 47, a television director as he stands outside the famous Shahbandar coffee house in the Rashid neighbourhood.
He says he will vote for Allawi, a secular Shiite, because that suits his beliefs.
Azzam is handed a poster for the list of Samir Sumaidiy, a secular Sunni Muslim, who was a member of the Governing Council formed right after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and dissolved after Allawi took over.
He examines the slogan "freedom, order and security" of Sumaidiy's National Democratic Coalition.
"This guy has it the other way around it should be security first and freedom last," says Saleh.
A few meters away on Mutanabi street, two young bearded men wearing the hallmark white Sunni skull caps say they will not vote and scoff at the ads being aired on television especially those paid for by the independent electoral committee, which is charged with preparing for elections.
One ad shows three masked men being chased away by residents of a neighbourhood ending with the caption "we are not alone, we are not afraid."
"This is just not real, let them try to come to Haifa street," says one of the men, who did not wish to be identified, referring to a dangerous road where three electoral workers were executed in broad day light recently.
With the exception of a billboard on a building rooftop at the entrance of the Sunni district of Adhamiyah in northern Baghdad urging people to vote "to offer our children a better country," there is not a single election poster on the main street.