Campaigning for Iraq’s April 30 elections will be “highly divisive” as parties appeal to their sectarian bases at a time of worsening violence, the UN’s envoy to Baghdad has warned, AFP reported on Wednesday, April 2nd.
Nickolay Mladenov also pushed for Iraqi leaders to urgently pass a much-delayed annual budget within two weeks, noting that further postponing the spending bill would badly impact on drawing much-needed business and investment to the country.

His remarks came as campaigning officially began on Tuesday for the parliamentary polls, Iraq’s first since March 2010, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki eyeing a third term with bloodshed at its highest level since the country emerged from a brutal sectarian war in 2008.

“Campaigning will be highly divisive,” Mladenov told AFP from his office in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone complex, which is also home to parliament and the American and British embassies.

“Everyone is ratcheting it up to the maximum, and you could see this even before officially the campaign started.”

The former Bulgarian foreign and defence minister added: “I would hope that it would be more about issues, and how the country deals with its challenges, but at this point, it’s a lot about personality attacks.”

“The efforts to reach across the sectarian divide are very weak.”