STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The elections are particularly important in Anbar Province, west of Baghdad. We used to report from there all the time, because it was a center of the Iraqi insurgency. In Anbar now it looks like traditional parties will lose ground to newer groups. As NPR Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports.
LOURDES GARCIA: Wow, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machine guns, and bullets.
INSKEEP: We have. We have some RPG's.
GARCIA: Mr. AL-ISSAWI I have deal with American. I promise them they can have some - finish the fighting and after, leave. Success and we finish the fighting. I told them I will give you all the heavy guns.
GARCIA: He hasn't quite done so yet. The big guns he uses as head of Fallujah's tribal security force are still here. Stacked among piles of Sheik Aifan's campaign posters. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraqi politics have been largely dominated by exiles who return to this country with American support. But in this election, especially in the once violent western province of Anbar, a new homegrown political movement has emerged. Sheik Aifan is one of the founding members of the Sahwa, or Awakening, movement. In 2006, he and other tribal leaders turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and joined the Americans. Now, Anbar is one of the more stable Iraqi provinces, and these fighters want to become a political force here.
INSKEEP: You know, we are new in the political. And we don't catch up because we sacrifice to help the people more than anyone. We sacrifice - me? They kill my mother, and they kill one of my sisters, and they kill nine of my family.
GARCIA: The Sunni boycott of the polls in 2005 left them with little representation. This time, the sheik says, they're going to flex their electoral muscle.
INSKEEP: We will vote now. They understand exactly why they lose everything for five years.
GARCIA: One of the only Sunni parties that did participate in the last elections, the Iraqi Islamic Party, or IIP, got a high number of seats in the Anbar provincial council. Sheik Aifan sees the IIP as his main rivals. He speaks like a seasoned campaigner.
INSKEEP: The IIP is stealing money. They didn't build water stations, schools, factories, nothing. We should build clinic. We should build schools.
GARCIA: Still, Sheik Aifan is worried that the Sunni's nascent political power will be undermined by intra-Sunni rivalry. The Awakening movement itself is fractured with different tribal sheiks running for office on different lists. And there are dozens of other Sunni groups competing here as well.
INSKEEP: Big mistake. It will make us weak. We will be good in the future, but we are weak now.
GARCIA: At Fallujah's main market, vegetable sellers hawk recently arrived batches of spinach and eggplant. This city was once the capital of the insurgency and the target of two U.S. offensive in 2004, which left thousand dead and wounded. It's much more peaceful here these days, so much so, that on Monday the U.S. Marines formally handed over their base, Camp Fallujah, to the Iraqis. That stability has allowed candidates to actually hit the streets and campaign in Anbar. Still with dozens of groups and individuals competing here, many people seem confused. 26-year-old Majid Abu Ayman says he's really not sure who any of the candidates are.
M: (Through translator) I do not have someone special in mind, because I don't know who is running. But we hope all of them are good.
GARCIA: There is a sense here though, that these elections are important. And many people here spoke of wanting their sect to be represented.
INSKEEP: There's me during the meeting with brother Bush last year, do you remember.
GARCIA: Back at his compound, Sheik Aifan shows a visiting reporter pictures of himself with personalities, including President Bush and President Obama. He is plotting his success in these provincial elections. But the real price he says is the national election slated for the end of this year. That's when a new Iraqi parliament will be voted into office. He says talks are underway to creating national Sunni list similar to the Shiite list that swept into power in 2005.
INSKEEP: If we unite and if we success and if we won in the elections, we will control all of that.
GARCIA: Despite the Sunnis' minority status, he dreams that one day they will resume their place at the helm of this country. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News Fallujah.