Special voting for military personnel, patients, prisoners are voting in on the 5th of March.

What makes this election special for Anbar is that last time Iraq voted for parliament in 2005, the province was under the grip of different armed groups and al-Qaeda.

Anbar's capital Ramadi and main city of Falluja were the birthpalces for the Iraqi insurgency against the US-led occupation.

Some clerics and armed groups issued fatwa or religious ruling calling on people not to vote. So many either boycotted or could not vote.

Even the few blocs or candidates were scared to put up their posters on the streets.

Now it’s a totally different story.

More than 500 candidates in Anbar alone and the streets are full of their posters.

And they will be competing for 14 seats - four of which are allocated for women.  Registered voters are more than 800 000 people.

What's also interesting is that mentality of many people has changed. They realised that not participating in the past elections left a vacuum that only effected them.

And many people also realised that armed groups like al-Qaeda and others will bring harm to their province. They also say their political, social and religious trends have changed.