Iraq expat voters shun Chalabi

BAGHDAD, Iraq — 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.

Rebounding violence, meanwhile, which included bombings, assassination attempts and other attacks, claimed at least 19 lives in Iraq on Monday.

At least one U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad when his patrol vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, the U.S. military said.

Two U.S. pilots died in a helicopter accident in western Baghdad Monday night. The accident was under investigation, though the military did say no hostile fire was involved.

As of Monday, at least 2,170 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Also among the dead were eight members of a single Iraqi SWAT team that was wiped out in what Iraqi authorities described as an hourlong shootout with better-armed insurgents in Baqouba.

With 95 percent of a preliminary tally from the Dec. 15 vote now completed, Chalabi remained almost 8,000 votes short of the 40,000 minimum needed for him or his bloc to win a single seat in the 275-seat National Assembly, according to election officials. Without a seat in the assembly, Chalabi would presumably be unable to obtain a post in the resulting government.

However, Chalabi was among the politicians jockeying Monday ahead of meetings that have been scheduled in the Kurdish north this week to bring Shiite Muslims, Sunni Arabs, Kurds and others into postelection talks on forming the next government.

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.

Chalabi's bloc has done poorly across the country, according to the preliminary tally, which left it statistically unlikely that the bloc could win a seat outright. Final results are expected by early next month.

Iraq's election commission said Monday it still had found no evidence of any fraud serious enough to change the outcome of the elections.

Violence Monday targeted government security forces and officials.

In Baghdad, at least three bombs hit the predominantly Shiite Karrada district, killing at least one person.

About 25 insurgents attacked a checkpoint run by an Iraqi SWAT team outside Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Baqouba, the capital of Diyala, has been the scene of Sunni protests against the election results. A roadside bombing Monday, apparently targeting the governor, wounded him and killed one of his guards, spokesman Ali Khaiyam said. A separate attack killed a female member of the provincial council, police in Baqouba said.

About 20 miles south of Baghdad, armed men stormed the house of a Shiite family Monday and killed four men of the family.