"We will win more that half the seats if fair elections are held," says Sherif Ali Bin Hussein, a 48-year-old former banker with a confident smile who spent most of his life in London until Saddam Hussein was toppled last year.
Son of Badiaa and cousin of Ghazi, the second king of Iraq, Hussein's parents fled the country when he was two years old, following the bloody coup that ended 36 years of a relatively democratic, constitutional monarchy.
Between 1922 and 1958, Iraq had three kings descended from Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who initiated the Arab revolt against the region's Ottoman rulers: Faysal I (1922 to 1933), Ghazi I (1933 to 1939) and Faysal II (1939 to 1958).
"People can compare between the two regimes that governed Iraq and judge which one was better" he said, adding that "We are putting the monarchy forward as a solution to solve the Iraqi people's problems.
"Our electoral list is the only one that will attract votes from all over the country because we represent all colors of the Iraqi spectrum," Hussein said at his movement's headquarters, a vast villa in Baghdad's smart Jadriyah district.
Following King Faysal II's assassination by rebels in 1958, there were no elections for 27 years. Votes organized by Saddam were hardly democratic.
If Hussein controls the majority of the interim national assembly, which must also draw up a new constitution, he said he can ask the monarchy to be reestablished.
Under the slogan of "Security and Stability, Justice and Prosperity", his Constitutional Monarchy party will have to compete in the January 30 elections along with over 200 other political entities.
His party's logo is simply his royal coat of arms: the crown supporting a canopy over a lion and horse holding a circle, containing a palm tree as well as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Despite his apparent slim chances of victory, the prince is confident of carrying the elections despite the obvious lack of opinion polls.
"Iraqis are not fools to vote for a government that has bombed their cities," he said in reference to US-backed Iraqi military action to restore order over insurgent hotspots like Najaf and Fallujah.
© 2004 Agence France-Presse
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