Things are hopping in Iraq. I'm just catching up. Apparently Sunnis in Iraq aren't all that happy with the election:

By the standards of Iraq, the violence was low-level. It came as Sunni Arabs demonstrated in cities of the west and center to demand the overturning of the Dec. 15 national elections in which early results show that the country's Shiite Muslim majority won the biggest share of seats.

About 5,000 people turned out for the largest demonstration, in Baghdad. "Out, out, Iran!" marchers shouted, decrying Iranian influence upon Iraq's now-governing Shiite religious parties. In the central city of Diwaniyah, Sunnis staged a smaller protest, while police in Baqubah fired into the air and arrested 10 people to block a protest by a Sunni crowd estimated at 1,000.

The general electorate wasn't all that enamored with US ally Chalabi:

Unexpectedly low support from overseas voters has left Ahmed Chalabi -- the returned Iraqi exile once backed by the United States to lead Iraq -- facing a shutout from power in this month's vote for the country's first full-term parliament since the 2003 invasion.

How 'bout that democracy! You can feel the warm, fuzzy feelings towards America already.

A spokesman for Chalabi's party, which has filed complaints of election irregularities, said he was waiting for the results of the investigation. "What I can say is Dr. Chalabi will have an important role, whether in the government or outside,'' said the spokesman, Haider Mousawi.

Chalabi is regarded as both a master deal-maker and remarkable political survivor. The longtime exile and his associates played an influential role in the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein; U.S. authorities tapped Chalabi to lead a small Iraqi force in the U.S.-led invasion. But his reputation suffered from past financial scandals, and critics have charged he was always more popular with Americans than with Iraqis.

Chalabi's supporters here had hoped he would do well among exile voters who were allowed to cast ballots overseas. But results announced Monday showed he received just 0.89 percent of the "special vote,'' from Iraqi citizens in foreign countries, hospitals, the army and prisons.

He wins less than 1% of the exile voters and is shut out of parliament, but he'll still have "an important role." Isn't that a comforting thought?

About author

media girl also blogs at other places.