BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi police have rounded up dozens of suspects following the death of 66
people in twin suicide car bombings, attacks that foreshadowed the January 30 election, when
widespread violence is feared.

In preparation for the poll, officials conducted a lottery on Monday to choose the order in which
parties and blocs will appear on the ballot, holding the event in a closely guarded building that was
once part of Saddam Hussein's palace complex.

In Najaf, scene of the deadlier of Sunday's coordinated attacks, where 52 people were killed and
more than 140 wounded, the governor said police had since seized at least 50 suspects.

Adnan al-Zurfi, appointed to his post by U.S. authorities, gave reporters few details about those
detained, but said at least one held a passport from another Arab country.

The streets of the city were almost empty on Monday, apart from frequent funeral processions,
some passing close to where people continued to sift through the rubble of Sunday's blast.

Several pools of blood were left congealed on the street.

The attacks in Najaf and nearby Kerbala, both holy to Iraq's 60-percent Shi'ite Muslim majority,
came six weeks to the day before the election and appeared designed to provoke sectarian conflict
with Saddam's long-dominant Sunni minority.

Shi'ites, oppressed for decades under Saddam and before, are widely expected to come out on
top in the poll.

There was also election-related violence in Baghdad on Sunday, when gunmen riddled a car
carrying employees of Iraq's Electoral Commission with bullets before pulling three people from the
vehicle and shooting them dead in the street.

Two others somehow managed to escape, but the message to the Electoral Commission, and by
extension anyone planning to participate in next month's vote, could not have been clearer.

On Monday, Electoral Commission officials and election candidates gathered to choose the ballot
order held a minute's silence to remember those killed in the three attacks.

REJECT CIVIL WAR

Iraq's Shi'ite leaders, who are keen for the election to go ahead on time, recognising it as an
opportunity to convert their numbers into political clout via the ballot box, have urged their followers
to remain calm in the face of provocation.

They described the Najaf and Kerbala attacks as an attempt by radicals to ignite sectarian conflict
and said it would fail.

"We strongly condemn the attacks," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Council for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq and is top of the list for the most powerful Shi'ite electoral bloc.

"The aim is to sow sectarian division and defer the election process ... Iraqis will defeat those
aims."

Sunni leaders and clerics have echoed that call, denouncing the attacks and describing them as
the work of extremists who have no role to play in a democratic Iraq.

While the attacks have raised fears the country is edging closer to civil war, many Iraqis play
down such a possibility, pointing out that the Sunni and Shi'ite communities have generally
co-existed at peace in Iraq for centuries.

The Sunni militants in Iraq draw their support from a radical political and religious fringe, but can
not pretend to have widespread popularity among their community.

Any breadth to their movement comes from opposing the U.S. occupation in Iraq, not from
attacking fellow Iraqis.

Even the Sadr movement, led by militant young Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has led two
uprisings against U.S. forces this year and has challenged the authority of Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric,
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said revenge was not wise.

"A civil war will be hell. The consensus is against revenge," said his political liaison officer Ali
al-Yassiri.

ELECTION ENTHUSIASM

Despite the violence, and the expectation among U.S. and Iraqi officials that there will be a steady
increase in attacks as the election date nears, there is determination for the poll.

Monday's event in Baghdad to choose the order in which parties and blocs will appear on the
ballot sheet was attended by more than 200 people clearly eager for the election. Polls show that
around 80 percent of Iraqis would like to vote.

Whether that occurs on the day is very much in doubt, particularly in predominantly Sunni areas,
where most of the violence has been concentrated in recent months. Electoral officials say only 75
percent of Iraq is safe for the poll.

Still, at least 7,000 candidates are signed up to stand in the election, and officials say plans are in
place to have some 6,000 voting stations set up around the country, protected by local security
forces and manned by trained Iraqi monitors.

Reinforced U.S. units are on hand, but hope to stay in the background to avoid appearances it is
an American-run election.

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