Flashing his identity card at a security guard, Anis Mnasri exits a well protected compound in Geneva where hundreds of Arabic and Kurdish speakers are struggling to compile a register of Iraqi voters with just one week left to finish the job. "We are preparing the voting lists for the elections in Iraq by confirming the first names and surnames of the citizens," said Mnasri, a 28-year-old from Tunisia who has lived in this Swiss city for the past four years.
"They say that we have to complete the task by the end of December, but for me personally I do not mind if it takes a bit longer because I have no other work at the moment," he told AFP at the end of an eight-hour shift.
The fenced-off hall inside a huge exhibition centre in Geneva has become the unlikely location for the compilation of Iraq's national register, which is vital to the success of the country's landmark polls planned for January 30.
Adding to the intrigue, a temporary employment agency, Manpower, has been contracted by the Iraqi electoral commission, through an intermediary data scanning company in Dubai, to oversee the formidable task.
"It is the first time that we have done such a project," said Urs Rudisuhli, a project manager for Manpower, speaking to AFP outside the hall at the exhibition centre, Palexpo, because members of the public are forbidden to enter for security reasons.
"As for now, we are satisfied with the progress of the work," he said, while noting that his team had yet to receive all the data from Iraq.
The electoral lists are being drawn up on the basis of food ration cards distributed by the United Nations during Saddam Hussein's regime under an oil-for-food programme.
Iraqis had six weeks up to mid-December to register their details, which were sent to Dubai to be scanned into a computer.
The scanned imprints of ration cards, which often appear on-screen in a barely legible scrawl, are being passed to Geneva where the names are checked, double-checked and painstakingly typed into a data base, said Rudisuhli.
This information, which only forms the basis of the electoral register, is returned to Dubai and finally to Iraq, he explained.
"We collect the last data next weekend (December 25-26) and that gives us four days to process it," said the Manpower project manager, again insisting he was confident the task would be achieved.
But some of the temporary workers hired by the US firm were less optimistic as they trickled in and out of a white tent that shrouds the entrance to the hall, housing X-ray machines and other security checks due to fears of an attack aimed at derailing Iraq's election process.
"I think we need more people in order to finish the task by December 30," said a 36-year-old Moroccan woman, who gave her name as Jamila.
Some 800 people - largely with Middle Eastern or North African roots but who live on a temporary or permanent basis in and around Switzerland - work on two shifts from 6:00 am until 11:00 pm from Monday to Saturday.
Initially Manpower had hoped to hire 1,400 people but it ran into trouble with acquiring work permits.
Rudisuhli, however, assured that there were sufficient hands on deck.
The main problem encountered so far had been the slow arrival of data from Dubai. "We had to wait two weeks at the start of November, then (the system) slowly started to work and now it is at full speed," he said.
Men and women, both young and old, sit at some 400 computer terminals lined up inside the huge hall where they sift through the data, he said.
"They are able to talk, take coffee breaks and we have also set up a prayer room for those who want to use it," said Rudisuhli.
The atmosphere inside was friendly, noted Mohammed Rouken, an 18-year-old student from Lebanon, who has lived in Geneva for four years.
"The work is easy but so monotonous," he said.
"At the same time, I am an Arab and I think this is something good that I can do to help the Iraqis."
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