Iraq is preparing to go to the polls in an election that will be turning point for the country, for better or for worse.
Watanee party chairman Sheikh Tariq Al Abullah
The security situation in Iraq and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis still living in exile, mean the battle for votes extends far beyond its borders.
From offices in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Jalal Qaood is coordinating the Hoqooq party's election campaign.
"Either sectarianism and religious divides will take over the future of the country," he told Sky News, "or reconciliation and nationalism will come back in".
At the other end of town, Watanee party campaigners meet for a strategy meeting.
Party chairman Sheikh Tariq Al Abullah helped the US fight al Qaeda by leading the Sunni Awakening in Anbar province.
The multi-millionaire businessman and tribal leader lost three brothers and a sister to his enemies and now is risking his own life by entering politics and returning to Baghdad.
"It is dangerous and we lost many Iraqi leaders in the past seven or eight years but I want Iraqis to live in peace. I think it's my responsibility to do this."
But among ordinary Iraqis living in exile in Jordan there is scepticism about these elections and what they can achieve.
Sky News met Jinan Jawad with her three young daughters at the UN refugees centre in Amman.
Seven years after the war it is still packed with refugees queuing to apply for a better life overseas.
She was forced to leave Iraq after receiving several death threats and is now applying to live in Canada.
"I'm probably not going to vote," she said.
"We've been suffering a lot and I'll feel guilty if I vote for someone who'll destroy our country. It's better not to vote."
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are watching the election from afar.
Another refugee Khalid Al Naimi will be voting in the hope it changes his country for the better.
He said: "I need this to end. I am voting for someone who I believe can end this bloodshed in my country."
Sky News
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